1992 Nissan 240SX coupe: SR20DET, 5lug, Z32 brakes, no sunroof, no ABS

This is a 1992 Nissan 240SX coupe, base model (no sunroof, no ABS), cherry red pearl, located in Jacksonville, NC. Clear title in hand, ~193,000 miles on chassis, about 85k miles total on the engine (around 25k of that since the engine swap).

Short story: The 240SX ran great for 2 yrs, sat for 3.5 yrs, got running again for a little while, sat for 5 yrs. Getting it going again, but I have been between jobs longer than expected so I have to put both my 240SX project car and my daily-driver STi up for sale, whichever sells first.

NOTE: just realized the lower edge of the front fenders by the doors look goofy in the pictures, they aren't bolted on at the bottom so I can remove them quicker for wiring harness access. They fit correctly when bolted.

Longer story: I’ve owned this car since early 2003 and completed the engine swap in summer of 2003. It was my daily driver from 2003 to 2005. I pulled the engine to replace the oil pump, and do some other modification to the engine bay and wiring harness, turbo hoses, etc, in late 2005. The engine and all major components were reinstalled by mid-2006, but the car sat at my mom’s place after I enlisted in the Marine Corps. In 2009 after coming back from deployment, I brought the car down to SC and got it running again briefly, but it was in a perpetual project state at that point (re-locating the intercooler, 5-lug conversion, etc). Got PCS orders to California in 2010 so it ended up parked again before I could get everything done. I finally got the car back to where I live in 2015 and started gradually working on getting it going again in my spare time.

I recently pulled and cleaned the tank due to sour gas, and all the fuel hoses on the car are new (and the latest ethanol-compatible low-emissions-permeability good stuff, and new Z32 fuel filter) and it has a new fuel pump strainer (“sock”). I also had to fabricate a bit for the wiring connections on the fuel pump sending unit/bracket since a new one from the dealer is apparently $300 (!). The battery is only about a year old and holds a charge fine. The car starts and the engine idles without issue, but it isn’t fully driveable yet (see “To-Do List” section). I am relocating soon, so with packing and prepping the house I don’t have a lot of time to continue TLC’ing the car back to health, but I will update this if/when I get a chance to complete some of the To-Do List items.

Asking price is $5500, NEGOTIABLE. I’d be asking $6500 if it were fully roadworthy and in drive-it-home-now condition, but it isn’t, so make an offer! It doesn’t need much parts-wise, mostly just some time and elbow grease. I’ll consider and negotiate with reasonable offers since I realize it IS a project car that isn’t back to fully sorted yet, but don’t waste my time with lowballing me the same as the cost of a front clip, either. This is an assembled car with lots of upgrades and a solid history of daily driving with frequent autocross and low-speed drift/gymkhana-type events (think autocross-sized drift/gymkhana course). It just needs the normal sat-for-a-while TLC work to get it to autocross/track day condition again. (Note: items in “spares” section available separately.)

POWERTRAIN:

• S13 SR20DET (“late redtop”: last year of redtop SR, has ribbed cylinder head like the S13 blacktops), OEM 370cc/min injectors, OEM T25 turbo, OEM MAFS, twin-EEPROM daughter-board on OEM ECU (I think twin 8-bit chips, can’t remember; unknown JDM tune. I had an APEX’i S-AFC for tuning back in the day, no longer have that since I planned on a ROM tune after getting it on the road again). The exterior of the engine was painted with aluminum-silver-color high-temp engine paint while the engine was out in 2005, to seal up the sand-cast texture of the aluminum block and heads to prevent road grime/dirt from sticking to the metal (4+ hrs with brake cleaner and various wire brushes didn’t satisfy my OCD-ness)

• GReddy baffled high-capacity oil pan

• Full AC delete: condenser, lines, evap, etc (OEM non-AC heater core vent box in the dash)

• Cone intake filter, Volvo intercooler (mounted where AC condenser used to be), generic short-runner intake manifold (gasket-matched and ported/polished runners, high-temp graphite gray painted), GReddy Type-S BOV

• SS Autochrome 321-SS tubular exhaust manifold, SSAutochrome (304-SS ?) turbo outlet, downpipe, resonated test pipe, and turbo-back exhaust

• Wiring harness simplification: main harness looms re-routed through the upper fender area, main engine harness routed beneath the intake manifold for less cluttered engine bay look

• Walbro 255lph in-tank fuel pump, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, in-line Auto-Gage fuel pressure gauge, OEM fuel rail painted high-temp gray

• Braided stainless-steel turbo oil supply line and water hoses

• C&R Racing radiator (same people who make NASCAR and IndyCar radiators), twin electric fans (ECU switched, powered via relay)

• B&M short-shifter, SPL sheathed braided stainless-steel clutch line, clutch damper box delete

• Exedy full-face clutch, probably Stage-1-ish (mileage unknown, held up great when car was daily-driven)

CHASSIS:

• Five-lug conversion: front S14 spindles and balljoints, rear Z32 NA aluminum uprights

• Ford Mustang Cobra (SN95) wheels: 17”x8” (+27-ish offset); custom-sized plastic hub-centric rings all 4 corners, 3mm aluminum spacers on front, new acorn-style lug nuts

• Full Z32 brake conversion: front 30mm aluminum 4-piston calipers, rear 2-piston calipers, rear e-brake, 1” brake master cylinder, sheathed braided stainless-steel brake lines; OEM rotors and Axxis Ultimate pads (old, haven’t been properly bedded-in)

• Whiteline Tension-Rod bushings, Energy Suspension Front Lower Control Arm bushings; Energy Suspension bushings in rear upright including lower shock mount (OEM control arms still have OEM bushings in the arms since I was originally planning to replace with spherical bearing arms, so each arm is essentially “half-urethane-bushed”. However I still have the “other half” of the rear suspension bushings if you want to retain OEM control arms or sell the bushings to a Z32 buddy)

• KTS coilovers, either 8k/7k or 7k/6k (can’t remember exactly, but they are only 1kg/mm difference in rate front/rear compared to the usual 2kg/mm difference). Double-adjustable mounts: spring perch independent of shock mount, ride height adjust is independent of travel; single-adjustable damping; fronts are inverted monotube. Also, I still have the OEM S13 lower shock mounts that ordinarily come with the coilovers (since 5-lug swap front: S14, rear: z32)

• SuperHICAS fastback rear swaybar (IIRC 19mm diameter vs coupe 15mm)

• SPL Parts aluminum subframe spacers

• GReddy front strut tower brace (wide aluminum tube type), generic rear strut tower brace

• Battery relocated to trunk (plastic vented marine battery box)

MISC.:

• Autometer Z-series mechanical boost gauge (inHG/psi) and electric oil pressure gauge (psi) in A-pillar pod; electric water temp gauge (degrees F), electric oil temp gauge (degrees F) in center console where stereo used to be (oil pressure sending unit remote-mounted via braided stainless-steel line in engine bay to isolate it from vibration)

• Sparco steering wheel, Momo steering wheel hub w/ 50mm aluminum spacer

• Later-model seats (S14? Can’t remember, they’ve been in there a long time), no rear seat bottom cushion (back cushion in place as trunk divider), most sound deadening removed, no carpet

• Multiple gauge clusters (I was trying to convert a digital dash to SR tach in order to get a central-tach cluster, have a second digi cluster as well as an analog cluster with white-face gauges)

• JDM white/amber front turn signals

SPARES:

• OEM S13 redtop intake manifold, painted with aluminum-silver high-temp engine paint

• OEM cast exhaust manifold

• S14 (?) front/rear sliding calipers (have to double-check piston diameters)

• OEM S13 front/rear springs/shocks/spindles/4-lug hubs (located in Charlotte, NC)

• OEM S13 coupe rear swaybar

TO-DO LIST:

• Needs coolant overflow tank and PCV breather catch can

• Needs alignment

• Needs better intercooler piping (current setup was originally intended to be temporary, future plan was core with custom tanks and piping to fit AC condenser space for short-pumbing setup)

• Headlight pop-up is wonky (issue believed to be contacts in the headlight stalk, specifically the high-beam flasher), also check grounds

• Turn signals inop: check stalk, grounds, and relays

• Stupid brake light switch/pedal rubber bumper thingy

• Power steering leak (currently belt removed while troubleshooting other stuff)

• Change diff fluid, diff cover gasket (already have gasket)

• Needs ECU ROM-tune after intercooler piping sorted

• Make new tie-down bracket for battery relocation box in trunk

• Adjust wiper motor/wiper arms

• Check wiring connections (signal wire, lights) for electrical Autometer temp gauges (ground and power seem OK, needles move to low position when key on; the electrical oil pressure and mechanical boost/vacuum gauge on A-pillar work fine)

• Fuel pump circuit permanent fix: current temporary setup is fused power from battery. Had issue with fuel pump circuit when re-starting the car back in 2009, can’t remember exactly what the diagnosis was. Future plan was to determine if ECU fuel pump driver is OK, if so re-connect OEM circuit to have fuel pump driven by ECU. If not, run pump via relay connected to track-approved kill switch (to fit with SCCA/NASA safety regs)

• Tires are temporary-use: front tires: 225/45/R17 Kumho Solus KH25 with ~30% tread left, rear tires: 245/40R17 Goodyear F1 Asymmetric on the wear bars in center, inner shoulder worn bald; comes with second pair of Goodyears on wear bars with inner shoulder just about showing cord, second pair only good as consumable for drift event for a few runs

To reiterate, I realize this is a project and needs some time to get it back to 100%, so I am willing to consider offers. Also, I am posting this here first, and will negotiate less vigorously with GRM people, since I know that some nutjob from here will use the car properly and give it a better home than some nutjob from elsewhere on the internet.