problems and ?'s about my ka24e

SON240sx Automotive
1

i have a89 wtih a bone stock ka24e. awsome car, love it to death, will never buy another car. first thing is first, soe background on what happened.

  1. i’m driving my car, everything is great, on my way to get an oil change. get there and it’s HOT, never had a problem with my temp b4, it’s gets warm and stays there. never moves from it’s spot, always the same. the guy burns his hand on the oil, another guys starts saying something about antifreeze in my oil. i know thats not good. blown gasket, cracked block list goes on. so i get my oil changed, they don’t say nothing to me about it, i just happened to hear them talking. i leave, i notie i have barely any power, white smoke is coming out my car and it’s over heating again. i’m suppose to be taking a 9 hour road trip in 30 mins. not good. i also bought expensive plugs and a k&n air filter to go with this oil change for my trip.
    no go on the trip, i park my car, and figure it’s the head gasket.

a year later(like 2 weeks ago) i put the batter in my car and she fires up as if she’s been running all this time. i let her idle for a bit, check the temp, nothing. it’s smoking, not white smoke, but just smoke. i take her for a rip up the street, she smokes really bad, sounds like it’s missing in between 1-3 rpm’s accel and decel, after my little cruise, the temp meter, still nothing. i bring her home and park her again. started to think, what if it isn’t my head gasket, and rather just my thermostat(if thats the chase, i’m gonna be mad if i parked my car for a year b/c of the thermostat!!!

i’ve been on ebay for the last 2 weeks ordering stuff like crazy.
the guides for the timing chain are worn right off, so the chain is rubbing on metal, makes a nice rattle sound!! another problem, but soon to be solved.
i bought,

  1. new front struts (130$)
  2. pillow ball chamber strut mounts.($150)(oem ones are cracking very baddly)
  3. ecu($45)(gets rid of speed limiter and rev limtier claims made 30 hp on dyno.)
  4. timing kit(50$)( all guides, top and bottom sproket, chain, seals etc)
  5. head gaket set(80$) (all gaskets you can think of on the top end)
  6. head bolt set(50$)
  7. engine torgue damper(connects engine to strut pillar to stop engine movment, keep the power on the driveline)
  8. jdm mirrors, front bumper, hood plus more stuff not dealing with motor.
  9. performance thermostat(40$)(opens at 75 instead of stock, around 90 i think something like that)

another problem i have, its the clutch(ebay $180 stge 1 clutch have boughten it yet, but soon!) i push the pedal in, and when i let it out, it doesn’t come all the way out, it doesn’t seem to grab like it use to. some ppl say screw the rod, some say its the slave. the guy that had it b4 me(x g/f’s little bro) got some work done on the clutch, whart i can’t remember, but the problem was that u could rev it up and drop the clutch and it would just keep rev’n. clutvh was slipping like crazy. couldn’t smoke the tires at all. i think he had to weld something b/c i remeber him saying something about having to fabercate something. the clutch worked like new after that(drove it b4 and after) what a difference! i wanna replace it with the one of ebay anyways, but do you think i should also replace the master and the slave as well, or just try and bleed it and see if that works? or just wait for the new clucth(can’t drive it right now anyways) and see if it all works, bleed it then and try it.

hey another problem! i drive around, and i notice that my rims get very very hot. usually my back ones. not so much the front but sometimes. it was so bad one time, that i was driving around and it was stoppin the car, i had to rev the piss outa it just to get it to move, i was in the middle of rush hour, with a car that didn’t wanna go anywere, so i pulled off to a side street and let her cool. she was fine after that. sometimes i notice if it was sticking like that, i would back up about 6 ft and it would be fine after that. or i would just let it cool down and everything is a ok. doesn’t make any sence to me.

my back wiper, i come home, the rear wiper is on and working, i don’t shut it off, but rather just shut the car off, and go inside, wake up the next day, the wiper doesn’t work anymore. i can’t spray the water, or turn the wiper on. front ones work just fine. any ideas?

idle, doesn’t wanna idle under 1300. never had this problem b4. checked all my hose’s, doesn’t seem to be any leaks. never touched my idler b4.

ive been all over the net try’n to find answers to these ?'s. but no one seems to be able to give me an answer. i’ve read alot of the topics on here that might have related to my problems(clutch one for sure) but there is way to many to go through them all. i’m hoping that someone will be able to give me the answers i need and want!! i’m tired of walking and really really really miss driving my 240.

someone told me it could be my air sensor or exhaust. i don’t know what the last time they were changed, should i change them anyways? i’m doing all this work, to make it run right would it be worth it to spend the money on these sensor’s?

please help me!

i’m some what mechanical able. i can’t do everything myself, but i have a very good idea, and i know what i need to know. my dad’s a mechanic and has his own shop. i’ve learnt from him. but he doesn’t wanna fix my “jap crap”. ppfffh he’s just scared!! lol

2

1st off welcome to the club.

Sounds to me like u blew ur headgasket. Once ka’s overheat the headgaskets usually gone. Instead of replacing ur gaskets in ur motor, i would personally upgrade to a kade. 15 more hp, more aftermarket support if u want to go turbo with it etc. The my opinion on ur motor.

The ECU u bought probably makes ur car run rich, which will give u bad gas mileage, ebay chips are known to this. A better option would have been to get an automatic ECU and it eliminates the limiter in 5th gear.

If ur seiously thinking about getting a clutch etc think about what u want to do with ur car. If u want to go turbo etc u want a better clutch. If ur buying off ebay only buy EXEDY stage 1 and it has to be real, with real pressure plate and disc. its about $180 so its probably the one ur looking for. a slave cylinder is only $20 at CT cheap thing to try out for u clutch cause its slipping. It can also be the pedal adjustment.

EDIT accidently hit enter and it posted this haha

I dont really understand ur rim part. Is it ur rims or ur tires getting hot? Or is it ur hub and maybe ur bearings are gone? i need more clarification on that.

So what i think u should do if u are not going turbo. Get a KADE with an auto ECU. The trannys are the same, so replace ur existing clutch with an exedy stage one, maybe get a light weight flywheel just for fun if u have the money. And thats most of ur problems gone except for ur rear wiper which i dont know the answer to. check fuses and connections.

3

it’s great to be here with other ppl that share the same passion for the 240 as i do!

i kinda figure it was a gasker, but i really don’t know b/c it’s never happened to me b4. if i was to do a motor swap, i would be going sr or rb, if i’m gonna be puttin a twin cam in, it might as well be worth the hassle. i was told it’s gonna be alot cheaper to fix my ka24e then it would have been if i had the de. more bones in my pocket is always a good thing!! the ecu seems pretty solid, it’s not a chip or a resistor, i don’t like the idea of those. i’ll try it out, if it runs good, gas isn’t really a big concern, i mean it is a 4 bannger after all, how much worse could it get! i’ just sick of cav’s keepin up to me b/c i have a stupid speed limiter.(highspeed crazy story behind that one!!) i might just have to look into this auto ecu u talk about.

i’m told that if i wanna upgrade the motor to anything with more juice, i need to up grade the whole rearend, makes sence, little axels, lots of torque, not usually a pretty sence! right now, thats a little bigger then i have planned for this 240. i do want another some day, and i’ll be puttin a supra motor in there. i love the supra, skyline and 240, i wanna combind them all into a 240 body wtih a skyline look and the heart of a supra!
anywho. i need a new clucth anyways but the sounds of it, and an oem clucth is like 30$ cheaper. for the added performane, i’llspend the extra 30. but if there’s nothing wrong witht he clutch i have now, and it’s just the master or the slave, then i’ll replace those and wait till the cluch goes to get a new one.

reason for the hate on twin cam, i rce these z24 cav’s(2.4L twin) i walk all over them. sunfire gt( 2.4L v6 twin cam) we raced one light to another( 4-5 blocks) had him by a car. i like the low end torque, really moves. i’ll tell u, i was all about v6 till i brove this 240. the power and speed from this little car with a truck motor is unreal, blew me away as well as what ever i was next to! maybe some day when i’m really rich, i’ll build up my ka24e and put a turbo, or try for a sc. anything is possibe. i’ll keep my single cam. just a dream for now. i don’t wanna build a monster, yet, i jjst want a fast daily driver thats stlyish.

4

i stand corrected after further review of the ecu look on ebay if u would like item # 300099933358 it is an auto ecu.

EDIT

didn’t notice u edited ur post till just now!! jeez smoke another one eh!! anywho, instead of wasting space i figured i’d do the same, the brakes i’m not sure whats up with that myself, but it is the rim, the whole rim the gets hot, and it’s not like i ride the brakes or just slam on them, this happens even during regualr daily driving. i have replaced my brake pads with the best ones i could order through napa. the only other option i was thinking is either new calipers or new rotors or both!! i need the rotors anyways. i have checked all my fuse’s and tot he best of my knowlegde they are all ok, i know there is a hidden fuse box way down under, i havn’t had a chance to dig my fingers in that one yet. i’m not to sure where to fuse would be. i bought a manual off ebay for my car. stupid ass didn’t tell me it was for a s13 with a ca18det. so it’s no good to me. i wanted the damn thing for the motor repairs.
the motor swap would be nice, but thats alot of time money and effort for 15 hp that i could get with a nice shinny header! which is also on ebay, i wish i had more money right now dam pay day!!

5

im going to say head gasket for the first problem

id say if your having clutch issues might aswell replace it all while your at it slave, master, clutch, pressure plate all the bearings unless you can tell there fine.

as for the rims getting really hot and it being hard to get moving i bet your rear calipers are probablly seized i was having this problem when i first got mine couldn’t get the thing to go faster than like 70 on the way home from where i got it.

as for the idle issue check the throttle cable isn’t to tight, the IAC valve hasnt somehow came loose or something and clean your MAF or even timing?

6

hunk it and buy a new one.

sounds like the gasket to me aswell. im doing one atm

7

if i was gonna buy a new motor, i’d get a supra or skyline motor. screw I4. I6 is where it’s at! anywho, i was wondering, should i take myhead in and get it checked out for leaks and cracks or would i be good just to slap a new gasket on there and let her rip?

8

id look to see if your oil and coolant were mixing somewhere and go from there, if its the head gasket the head is probly warped, its known to happen, they usually warp and thats why the gasket goes… if this is so then you would take it to get machined flat again…

9

makes sence, when i got my oil changed it was all coffee cream like, as if the head was gone. i started it a year later, then oil still in it, and it’s as clean as th day i got it changed. i’m pretty sure it’s still clean even after my 30 min cruise. i’m gonna check again today to make sure. it’s not smoking white anymore.

10

i have a89 wtih a bone stock ka24e. awsome car, love it to death, will never buy another car. first thing is first, soe background on what happened.

  1. i’m driving my car, everything is great, on my way to get an oil change. get there and it’s HOT, never had a problem with my temp b4, it’s gets warm and stays there. never moves from it’s spot, always the same. the guy burns his hand on the oil, another guys starts saying something about antifreeze in my oil. i know thats not good. blown gasket, cracked block list goes on. so i get my oil changed, they don’t say nothing to me about it, i just happened to hear them talking. i leave, i notie i have barely any power, white smoke is coming out my car and it’s over heating again. i’m suppose to be taking a 9 hour road trip in 30 mins. not good. i also bought expensive plugs and a k&n air filter to go with this oil change for my trip.
    no go on the trip, i park my car, and figure it’s the head gasket.

a year later(like 2 weeks ago) i put the batter in my car and she fires up as if she’s been running all this time. i let her idle for a bit, check the temp, nothing. it’s smoking, not white smoke, but just smoke. i take her for a rip up the street, she smokes really bad, sounds like it’s missing in between 1-3 rpm’s accel and decel, after my little cruise, the temp meter, still nothing. i bring her home and park her again. started to think, what if it isn’t my head gasket, and rather just my thermostat(if thats the chase, i’m gonna be mad if i parked my car for a year b/c of the thermostat!!!

i’ve been on ebay for the last 2 weeks ordering stuff like crazy.
the guides for the timing chain are worn right off, so the chain is rubbing on metal, makes a nice rattle sound!! another problem, but soon to be solved.
i bought,

  1. new front struts (130$)
  2. pillow ball chamber strut mounts.($150)(oem ones are cracking very baddly)
  3. ecu($45)(gets rid of speed limiter and rev limtier claims made 30 hp on dyno.)
  4. timing kit(50$)( all guides, top and bottom sproket, chain, seals etc)
  5. head gaket set(80$) (all gaskets you can think of on the top end)
  6. head bolt set(50$)
  7. engine torgue damper(connects engine to strut pillar to stop engine movment, keep the power on the driveline)
  8. jdm mirrors, front bumper, hood plus more stuff not dealing with motor.
  9. performance thermostat(40$)(opens at 75 instead of stock, around 90 i think something like that)

another problem i have, its the clutch(ebay $180 stge 1 clutch have boughten it yet, but soon!) i push the pedal in, and when i let it out, it doesn’t come all the way out, it doesn’t seem to grab like it use to. some ppl say screw the rod, some say its the slave. the guy that had it b4 me(x g/f’s little bro) got some work done on the clutch, whart i can’t remember, but the problem was that u could rev it up and drop the clutch and it would just keep rev’n. clutvh was slipping like crazy. couldn’t smoke the tires at all. i think he had to weld something b/c i remeber him saying something about having to fabercate something. the clutch worked like new after that(drove it b4 and after) what a difference! i wanna replace it with the one of ebay anyways, but do you think i should also replace the master and the slave as well, or just try and bleed it and see if that works? or just wait for the new clucth(can’t drive it right now anyways) and see if it all works, bleed it then and try it.

hey another problem! i drive around, and i notice that my rims get very very hot. usually my back ones. not so much the front but sometimes. it was so bad one time, that i was driving around and it was stoppin the car, i had to rev the piss outa it just to get it to move, i was in the middle of rush hour, with a car that didn’t wanna go anywere, so i pulled off to a side street and let her cool. she was fine after that. sometimes i notice if it was sticking like that, i would back up about 6 ft and it would be fine after that. or i would just let it cool down and everything is a ok. doesn’t make any sence to me.

my back wiper, i come home, the rear wiper is on and working, i don’t shut it off, but rather just shut the car off, and go inside, wake up the next day, the wiper doesn’t work anymore. i can’t spray the water, or turn the wiper on. front ones work just fine. any ideas?

idle, doesn’t wanna idle under 1300. never had this problem b4. checked all my hose’s, doesn’t seem to be any leaks. never touched my idler b4.

ive been all over the net try’n to find answers to these ?'s. but no one seems to be able to give me an answer. i’ve read alot of the topics on here that might have related to my problems(clutch one for sure) but there is way to many to go through them all. i’m hoping that someone will be able to give me the answers i need and want!! i’m tired of walking and really really really miss driving my 240.

someone told me it could be my air sensor or exhaust. i don’t know what the last time they were changed, should i change them anyways? i’m doing all this work, to make it run right would it be worth it to spend the money on these sensor’s?

please help me!

i’m some what mechanical able. i can’t do everything myself, but i have a very good idea, and i know what i need to know. my dad’s a mechanic and has his own shop. i’ve learnt from him. but he doesn’t wanna fix my “jap crap”. ppfffh he’s just scared!! lol

11

1st off welcome to the club.

Sounds to me like u blew ur headgasket. Once ka’s overheat the headgaskets usually gone. Instead of replacing ur gaskets in ur motor, i would personally upgrade to a kade. 15 more hp, more aftermarket support if u want to go turbo with it etc. The my opinion on ur motor.

The ECU u bought probably makes ur car run rich, which will give u bad gas mileage, ebay chips are known to this. A better option would have been to get an automatic ECU and it eliminates the limiter in 5th gear.

If ur seiously thinking about getting a clutch etc think about what u want to do with ur car. If u want to go turbo etc u want a better clutch. If ur buying off ebay only buy EXEDY stage 1 and it has to be real, with real pressure plate and disc. its about $180 so its probably the one ur looking for. a slave cylinder is only $20 at CT cheap thing to try out for u clutch cause its slipping. It can also be the pedal adjustment.

EDIT accidently hit enter and it posted this haha

I dont really understand ur rim part. Is it ur rims or ur tires getting hot? Or is it ur hub and maybe ur bearings are gone? i need more clarification on that.

So what i think u should do if u are not going turbo. Get a KADE with an auto ECU. The trannys are the same, so replace ur existing clutch with an exedy stage one, maybe get a light weight flywheel just for fun if u have the money. And thats most of ur problems gone except for ur rear wiper which i dont know the answer to. check fuses and connections.

12

it’s great to be here with other ppl that share the same passion for the 240 as i do!

i kinda figure it was a gasker, but i really don’t know b/c it’s never happened to me b4. if i was to do a motor swap, i would be going sr or rb, if i’m gonna be puttin a twin cam in, it might as well be worth the hassle. i was told it’s gonna be alot cheaper to fix my ka24e then it would have been if i had the de. more bones in my pocket is always a good thing!! the ecu seems pretty solid, it’s not a chip or a resistor, i don’t like the idea of those. i’ll try it out, if it runs good, gas isn’t really a big concern, i mean it is a 4 bannger after all, how much worse could it get! i’ just sick of cav’s keepin up to me b/c i have a stupid speed limiter.(highspeed crazy story behind that one!!) i might just have to look into this auto ecu u talk about.

i’m told that if i wanna upgrade the motor to anything with more juice, i need to up grade the whole rearend, makes sence, little axels, lots of torque, not usually a pretty sence! right now, thats a little bigger then i have planned for this 240. i do want another some day, and i’ll be puttin a supra motor in there. i love the supra, skyline and 240, i wanna combind them all into a 240 body wtih a skyline look and the heart of a supra!
anywho. i need a new clucth anyways but the sounds of it, and an oem clucth is like 30$ cheaper. for the added performane, i’llspend the extra 30. but if there’s nothing wrong witht he clutch i have now, and it’s just the master or the slave, then i’ll replace those and wait till the cluch goes to get a new one.

reason for the hate on twin cam, i rce these z24 cav’s(2.4L twin) i walk all over them. sunfire gt( 2.4L v6 twin cam) we raced one light to another( 4-5 blocks) had him by a car. i like the low end torque, really moves. i’ll tell u, i was all about v6 till i brove this 240. the power and speed from this little car with a truck motor is unreal, blew me away as well as what ever i was next to! maybe some day when i’m really rich, i’ll build up my ka24e and put a turbo, or try for a sc. anything is possibe. i’ll keep my single cam. just a dream for now. i don’t wanna build a monster, yet, i jjst want a fast daily driver thats stlyish.

13

i stand corrected after further review of the ecu look on ebay if u would like item # 300099933358 it is an auto ecu.

EDIT

didn’t notice u edited ur post till just now!! jeez smoke another one eh!! anywho, instead of wasting space i figured i’d do the same, the brakes i’m not sure whats up with that myself, but it is the rim, the whole rim the gets hot, and it’s not like i ride the brakes or just slam on them, this happens even during regualr daily driving. i have replaced my brake pads with the best ones i could order through napa. the only other option i was thinking is either new calipers or new rotors or both!! i need the rotors anyways. i have checked all my fuse’s and tot he best of my knowlegde they are all ok, i know there is a hidden fuse box way down under, i havn’t had a chance to dig my fingers in that one yet. i’m not to sure where to fuse would be. i bought a manual off ebay for my car. stupid ass didn’t tell me it was for a s13 with a ca18det. so it’s no good to me. i wanted the damn thing for the motor repairs.
the motor swap would be nice, but thats alot of time money and effort for 15 hp that i could get with a nice shinny header! which is also on ebay, i wish i had more money right now dam pay day!!

14

im going to say head gasket for the first problem

id say if your having clutch issues might aswell replace it all while your at it slave, master, clutch, pressure plate all the bearings unless you can tell there fine.

as for the rims getting really hot and it being hard to get moving i bet your rear calipers are probablly seized i was having this problem when i first got mine couldn’t get the thing to go faster than like 70 on the way home from where i got it.

as for the idle issue check the throttle cable isn’t to tight, the IAC valve hasnt somehow came loose or something and clean your MAF or even timing?

15

hunk it and buy a new one.

sounds like the gasket to me aswell. im doing one atm

16

if i was gonna buy a new motor, i’d get a supra or skyline motor. screw I4. I6 is where it’s at! anywho, i was wondering, should i take myhead in and get it checked out for leaks and cracks or would i be good just to slap a new gasket on there and let her rip?

17

id look to see if your oil and coolant were mixing somewhere and go from there, if its the head gasket the head is probly warped, its known to happen, they usually warp and thats why the gasket goes… if this is so then you would take it to get machined flat again…

18

makes sence, when i got my oil changed it was all coffee cream like, as if the head was gone. i started it a year later, then oil still in it, and it’s as clean as th day i got it changed. i’m pretty sure it’s still clean even after my 30 min cruise. i’m gonna check again today to make sure. it’s not smoking white anymore.