Im thinking of building my 1990 240sx for track use . Has anyone here know someone who has one that runs good times and is comfortable with it? Thanks

EDIT One more thing to add is power steering really needed to have a fast track car?

 

a good beginning track car doesn't necessarily turn good times, in fact, i believe the opposite to be true.

with that said, i sold a 1990 300ZX i had in favor of a 98 240SX to learn to drive on track.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tnord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">a good beginning track car doesn't necessarily turn good times, in fact, i believe the opposite to be true.

with that said, i sold a 1990 300ZX i had in favor of a 98 240SX to learn to drive on track.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Honestley dude I dont even care about being fast. I wanna learn to be a great driver and build up from there. Im working on my suspension right now and then Im gonna work on gettins some TT 300Z brakes and then my swap will go in. But for now im rocking the SOHC 2.4L Thanks for your input.

 

You have a great answer there, if you don't make the easy mistake of getting suckered into mods like big brakes and swaps. Take a look at...

http://it2.evaluand.com/recipe.php

Be smart.

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rocks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Im thinking of building my 1990 240sx for track use . Has anyone here know someone who has one that runs good times and is comfortable with it? Thanks

EDIT One more thing to add is power steering really needed to have a fast track car?</TD></TR></TABLE>

ABSOLUTELY!! They make a great track car and can be done relatively cheap. Buy some koni sports, some GC's, get some big sway bars. I've driven a bunch of them that are dedicated race cars (Improved Touring A in SCCA) and they are a blast. Don't bother doing anything to the stock brake system. Get SS lines, new rotors, race pads and that's it. They have plenty of brakes. I've driven different configurations and besides doing suspension and getting track pads the best mod for that car is doing an LSD and a higher final drive. Don't even bother touching the motor if it runs good. Do a final drive and diff first. It makes such a big difference in that car. Great choice for a track car!

edit: on the power steering. Just keep it. You won't even notice the difference in power without it. And the power steering isn't overboosted like I feel the hondas and acuras are. it's not worth removing and makes it easier to drive in the paddock and such, not to mention on the street.

s

 

well actually my calipers need a rebuild there getting stuck alot especially the left one and the brake swap really isint that expensive. and the motor swap ??? Dude this motor is horrific I hate it. It sound like a truck motor and it has a pro. Its torquey but once you get up to high rpms it sucks badly. I understand what you said though. Thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rocks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well actually my calipers need a rebuild there getting stuck alot especially the left one and the brake swap really isint that expensive. and the motor swap ??? Dude this motor is horrific I hate it. It sound like a truck motor and it has a pro. Its torquey but once you get up to high rpms it sucks badly. I understand what you said though. Thanks</TD></TR></TABLE>

don't bother with a brake swap. just get a rebuilt stock caliper. they're like $30. it sounds like a truck motor because it is but has plenty of potential. trust me, get a NISMO final drive and LSD. MUST GET LSD!!

s

 

First off its :

Suspension : Was thinking of getting JIC but now im leaning towards Koni (400-450)+ GC (300-400) What spring Rates would be good?

Brakes : Rebuilding the calipers would be much cheaper (thanks), rotors(100 for slotted, pads(depends?) , SS lines (depends what brand)
(
Motor: SR20 Clip (2100)

Tranny: ACT Clutch (375), Flywheel(200) , LSD(800) Maybe cheaper

Everything there should be around 4800. Kinda weird dipping in about 4800 in a 900$ car. Ill do most of the work on my car except the LSD swap.

 

Don't bother with slotted or drilled rotors, just get plain old replacements.

For pads, there are lots of choices. I'd go ahead and get a set of track pads to use at the track (unfortunatley, they don't work well on the street). Carbotech or Cobalt can point you in the right direction.

Koni and GC is a proven setup on most cars.

Unless the engine is broken, leave it stock for now. If you want more power later, go ahead, but remember if you decide to build a racecar, the engine swap is probably illegal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rocks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">First off its :

Suspension : Was thinking of getting JIC but now im leaning towards Koni (400-450)+ GC (300-400) What spring Rates would be good?

Brakes : Rebuilding the calipers would be much cheaper (thanks), rotors(100 for slotted, pads(depends?) , SS lines (depends what brand)
(
Motor: SR20 Clip (2100)

Tranny: ACT Clutch (375), Flywheel(200) , LSD(800) Maybe cheaper

Everything there should be around 4800. Kinda weird dipping in about 4800 in a 900$ car. Ill do most of the work on my car except the LSD swap.</TD></TR></TABLE>

as for the brakes, go to autozone for the rotors. They're like $17 a piece. Track pads (hawk blues) are like $90 for the pair.

flywheel, just leave stock. you'll barely notice the difference.

clutch - stock will do.

lsd - $800 is bout right for the lsd. trust me, put the money towards final drive instead of the motor!!

Motor, seriously don't even bother. Get the S&S header, a good exhaust and get the JWT ecu. With the stock motor, good suspension, stock brakes, lsd and fd it'll be a long time before you're driving that car to 100% of it's potential.

s

 

forget the motor for now, forget jic... pretend you never even heard of jic...

start with the stock motor, stock springs, and decent shocks (koni yellows come to mind). when you feel the need to upgrade the suspension you can then go with a ground control setup and cutsom eibach rates.

 

Heres a pic of my 900$ masterpiece. Thank you for all your imput guys. The LSD I couldnt find anything cheaper. 800 Kaaz LSD thats the cheapest I could find. What spring rates should I get? Oh btw the car came with the wheels , roofrack and cd player, equalizer, amp . The interior is clean as hell better than my newer car. My freind has vette and did not need this

 

The stock brakes are pretty damn puny IMO. You can probably get by track pads with the stock SOHC lump, but why bother really? You're going to be replacing rotors quite often from the heat checking they will experience, so you'll be up to the cost of putting say 300ZX fronts on the car pretty soon. Keep in mind you can do the front 300ZX swap for less than $250 minus pads(which you'd buy anyway with the stockers) - so we're not talking about much of a cost for a HUGE increase in thermal capacity. Just because you *can* get away with the undersized stock crap on an IT car doesn't mean it's the best solution by far.

Don't bother paying $500+ for a Nismo final drive - just search around for the 4.36 ring and pinion that came in alot of JDM R200 diffs. I got my 4.36 ring and pinion for $80 shipped to me, so they are out there if you're paitient. I've got an S15 helical torsen diff I'm about to put in, but there are tons of clutch type diffs for sale. I might end up trying one later on, but I like the feel of the few torsen equipped cars I've driven so I figured I'd give it a go.

Suspension, Koni + GC is a good combo, but I'm of the opinion that there is better stuff out there for the price. Front strut travel is REALLY limited in these cars, so a set of coilovers with height adjusting lower perches will be worth their weight in gold once you try to lower the car at all up front. Once you buy all the GC "tricks" to regain strut travel and add camber adjustment you're up to the price of some REALLY nice coilovers that will blow away OTS Koni's and GC springs. Make sure you replace the front tension rods - the bushings are guaranteed to be dead.

I got my car with the intention of keeping the engine stock for a few years then doing something turbo(I love me some boost) - but the clutch exploded on the KA24DE(that was weak in its own right, I can't imagine 15hp less...) and the more I worked on it, the more I realized the engine was more tired than I originally thought. It had 126k miles on it and it didn't look like it had received much TLC through its life.

I swapped in an SR20DET rather than spend the few hundred bucks getting the KA to a decent running condition and I couldn't be happier. This engine absolutely feels great to drive. Nice smooth power delivery with pretty good pull up to redline. For me it wasn't so much that I needed an HPDE car that could accelerate fast, but I wanted to give the whole turbo thing a go and try something new. I definitely think I made the right choice - I love this engine so far. I'm still on the stock turbo and not running much more than stock boost with just some exhaust bolt-ons and a cast aluminum baffled GReddy oil pan(really a sweet item). With a bigger Koyo radiator, temperatures are ice cold on the track(210*F oil, 190*F water on an 85*F day running 10 psi - 205rwhp or so). Plus ya can't beat dropping about 60 lbs off the nose of the car going with the SR.

It's a pretty easy car to drive, and it responds well to inputs and offers plenty of feedback. I didn't have an LSD and it would lift up the inside rear wheel in T5 at Road Atlanta - which sucked hard. Have some brake bias issues with using rear 300ZX brakes, but other than that it was well behaved.

All in all - a good track car.

 

http://www.courtesyparts.com/nms/s13/s13_4.html

they have all the NISMO and Nissan Motorsports parts. The LSD is less than $800 I believe.

spring rates...hmmm maybe 350F/250R

s

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Def &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The stock brakes are pretty damn puny IMO. You can probably get by track pads with the stock SOHC lump, but why bother really? You're going to be replacing rotors quite often from the heat checking they will experience, so you'll be up to the cost of putting say 300ZX fronts on the car pretty soon. Keep in mind you can do the front 300ZX swap for less than $250 minus pads(which you'd buy anyway with the stockers) - so we're not talking about much of a cost for a HUGE increase in thermal capacity. Just because you *can* get away with the undersized stock crap on an IT car doesn't mean it's the best solution by far.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

I couldn't disagree more. For the stock motor, even fully built to IT specs the stock brakes are actually very suitable. I've beat the **** out of the stock 240 sized brakes in two 3 hour enduro's and never faded them, not even once. Don't bother. Spend the $40 for the caliper and $34 for a SET of rotors and get some hawks. The stock brakes are fine. for the stock motor, the stock brakes are fine. If you go with a SR20DET swap like he did, I *MIGHT* recommend going to bigger brakes. The brake bias issue could become a problem. I don't know enough about Nissan stuff to know if there would be one.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Def &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Don't bother paying $500+ for a Nismo final drive - just search around for the 4.36 ring and pinion that came in alot of JDM R200 diffs. I got my 4.36 ring and pinion for $80 shipped to me, so they are out there if you're paitient. I've got an S15 helical torsen diff I'm about to put in, but there are tons of clutch type diffs for sale. I might end up trying one later on, but I like the feel of the few torsen equipped cars I've driven so I figured I'd give it a go.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wow, good info about the diff and final drive. Where did you pick up the final drive from? I'd love a source as I'm looking for one.

please help me out. thanks. also, how much was that diff?

s

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mike C &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">forget the motor for now, forget jic... pretend you never even heard of jic...

start with the stock motor, stock springs, and decent shocks (koni yellows come to mind). when you feel the need to upgrade the suspension you can then go with a ground control setup and cutsom eibach rates.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Agreed, don't do anything but maintence on the car. Once you start tracking and your skills are beyond the cars capability you'll know what parts you need.

P.S. The KA20DE is a truck engine

Good site to go for your 240sx needs: http://www.zilvia.net


Modified by Fuuma0083 at 3:22 PM 11/2/2004

 

pm'ed

 

Damn thanks for that link. 731$ Im gonna keep upgrading parts . Suspension , Brakes and Motor thats how its going to go. Thanks you guys. Is power steering needed for a track 240?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Fuuma0083 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Agreed, don't do anything but maintence on the car. Once you start tracking and your skills are beyond the cars capability you'll know what parts you need.

P.S. The CA18DET is a truck engine

Good site to go for your 240sx needs: http://www.zilvia.net</TD></TR></TABLE>

what engine is that?

s

 

as a former owner of a 240sx, and a former frequent visitor of http://www.zilvia.net, i will say i think zilvia licks *****.

if you want real tech stuff, go to http://www.freshalloy.com

the CA18DET came in the 89-90 Silvia's i believe. 1991 (when the US 240 went to DOHC) is when the silvia's started getting the famed SR20DET.


you don't need to upgrade the brakes other than brake pads. i tracked the heavier 98 model ALL THE TIME with pretty mild Hawk HPS pads and didn't have any major problems. i dunno about the SOHC motors, but on my DOHC, a header and exhaust got you over 15whp. iirc, you can also take the exhaust cam from the early models (i think 93 was the "hottest" cam) and put it on the intake side. simple bolt ons really do make a significant difference on those cars.

if you want to upgrade the motor, you can score the KA24DE (DOHC) all day long for under $500, as people keep swapping out for the SR. and if you feel the need for boost, a boosted KA24DE makes as good of power as the SR, but more torque.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stevel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

what engine is that?

s</TD></TR></TABLE>


I believe it is from the older 180sx.


I also think that the 240 is a great choice. I myself looked for one, but couldnt find anything local(just saw a sr20 s13 in the classifieds last week in boston...****).


Its a good base for a good street/track car. If you dont want to race it, plenty of ways to make it fun, otherwise leave the stock motor/brakes.


Good luck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tnord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
you don't need to upgrade the brakes other than brake pads. </TD></TR></TABLE>

we ran a dohc s13 for 13hrs at vir without changing brake pads. Hawk blues front, blacks rear. YMMV

joel

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stevel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what engine is that?

s</TD></TR></TABLE>oops sorry i changed it its suppose to be the KA20DE, the CA18DET is the 180 engine. :-P

 

The 240sx is a good track car, both autox and circuit. I used to autox a 84 turbo rx7, good power and handling. while competing there would be a good number of 240s competing. Its a good all around car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by trigun7469 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pm'ed</TD></TR></TABLE>

:rollseyes:

give it up already.