Suggestions for Swap or Fix?

SON240sx Automotive
1

Hey guys and gals,

I first purchased my car in August of 2003. I fell victim to the infamous 3rd gear synchro failing. My clutch blew and I threw in a lower km 91 KA tranny and new clutch and was back on the road.

Ending up going sideways into a curb, my HICAS was out of whack and I was driving around with a spontaneous +/- 1 toe changing constantly.

I didn’t know 240sx and I presumed that this swaying of the rear end of the car normal until I went threw tires in a month. During this month my older bro also took my car out for a spin and put it sideways into a curb. Threw the rear alignment out even more.

So, in December I was driving my car after getting new rear control arms installed and all wheel alignment, having 3 different types of tires on my car, it started only working on 3 cylinders.

I popped the hood at idle and pulled the spark plug from cylinder 4 while the engine was running and there was no change, still running on 3 cylinders.

Pulled cylinder 3 plug and then the engine dropped down to two cylinders.

This made me think that the cyl 4 injector was out. I went to the auto parts store to purchase a new one at $186.12 and he recommended i take the injector out and turn the inition to see if fuel comes out.

In hindsight, I think he was under the impression I had top feed injectors. I took it out when the car was off and got a buddy to crank the engine. Needless to say, fuel sprayed everwhere.

I Plugged the injector back in for the time behind, but the next time I fired the engine I had white smoke pouring out of my exhaust.

I made it home and dumped the oil and drained well over 4L in from the oilpan. Somehow I was the victim of a blown headgasket.

Anyways, being a naive 18 yr old trying to fix his only mode of transportation (I live in the boons) I pulled the fuel rail from a 92 Altima (KA24DE, cost for all 4 injectors, $75) and stuck a ‘working’ injector in, but the headgasket was already blown.

I ended up taking the head off and sent it in to be machined (needed a few valves changed too)

I threw it back together with new NGK Iridium sparkplugs and the engine wouldn’t start (I have also not yet gapped the plugs). I think I set the timing out of whack when putting it back together.

I checked for spark, its there. Checked fuel pressure, there, compression, there. Last I checked there the harness going to the injectors was funtioning properly.

So I cranked the engine over many times by now. To my understanding the KA24DE is an Interference engine, meaning if my timing was out of whack I probably have destroyed my valves by now.

So my main question is.

Should I rip apart the engine again and reset the timing… possibly having to spend money on a valve change and new gaskets (approx $350 )

or should I grab a working KA engine and throw on my ‘lower km’ 91 tranny and new clutch?

To my knowledge, can’t I get a nice 95-97 KA24DE for $350 and have it work with my 92 ECU/harness, etc?

responses would be appreciated.

2

Set the timing right first. Even if you have bent the valves (which is doubtful) if the cam and ignition timing are correct it should start. You should only have to remove the rocker cover to do this and rocker cover gaskets can go again… usually many times.

Wost case you might need to pull the timing cover again, if the chain is on the crank gear wrong, but I don’t know how you could fuclk that up… if you do this you should be able to get just the timing cover gasket.

Absolute worst case, you have screwed everything up and it’s not worth fixing… yes you should be able to find a used '91 engine for fairly cheap to go with your lower than average km tranny. If you do find a 95 to 97 engine, you can use it, you just basically need to strip to to a long block, and replace everything form your '91… way more work that just swapping '91 engine for '91-'94 engine though.

-Martin.