Slooby

Alright back ground, 1996 240sx base, 5spd, with 200K+ on the clock, tach doesn't work, i was wondering what could be the cause. Also when i traded for it i was told it had a valve tick, well after looking in to it more looks like either the timing chain is slapping the valve cover or what not. I haven't pulled the valve cover yet, but i was wondering if it would be worth it to replace the chain if it comes down to it or just drop the spare motor that came with it in there. Spare motor has less than 100k from what i was told. Thanks in advance.

eng

Depends on how much of the work you can do yourself. Personally I'd rather have the high milage engine with known (and fixed) problems than the unknown lower milage engine. Could very well put in the spare and it have worse problems than the current engine. Spares are good for either building it up while its out of the car so you can still drive the car around, or as a replacement when your current engine dies with a catastrophic failure after you've driven it into the ground.

While replacing a timing chain isn't the hardest thing to do, its not the easiest either.

As for the tach, its can only be a few things: bad ECU, bad connections between ECU and gauge or a bad gauge itself. Look at pages EL-78, EL-79 and EL-81 of the FSM for the pins and steps to troubleshoot.

WishIHadaSilvia

Eng speaks the truth. The timing chain tick is super easy to test out if you are not sure if you've diagnosed it properly. Just take the valve cover off and remove the little plastic rectangle that is bolted down right above the timing chain. I believe there was a little recall because those plastic pieces were breaking off and falling down into more important engine internals, so it is better to just remove it anyway.

As far as your spare motor goes, I would use it as an opportunity to do a nice mini-rebuild. Do the timing chain and what not on that, along with a new head gasket, head studs, and water and oil pump, maybe throw some S13 cams in it. As long as you buy all of the parts to do it before you rip the motor apart and follow the FSM you can't really mess it up - the hardest part is setting the timing and you have to do that if all you do is the timing chain.

If you had the extra money and are willing to do some more work, you could do ARP head studs and some forged pistons, as well as new main/rod bearings so you could have a fun little boost motor . I'd take a 250-275whp KA-T over an SR any day.

Slooby

Thanks, I'm mostly mechanically inclined, where can i fine a FSM for this car.

WishIHadaSilvia

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/240sx/1996/

Not sure if that one works.

This is where I got my SR20 FSM so this should work:

http://www.240edge.com/manuals/240sx-1996.html

Slooby

So the problem i found was the top metal guide sheered(sp) so i swapped it off of the spare motor, also, i'm trying to figure out which motor i have in the back of my truck, its a ka i know but the valve cover is completely different, the spare has three bolts going down the center all on top near where the plugs go, the one in the car has three but the last one is moved to the back right behind the top of the valve cover.

Hijacker

Probably an earlier S13 version of the KA. I'm no KA expert, but I believe the S14 received a slightly modified head on their KAs.