Nissan S14 aka "Trash Panda"

BioBandit

BioBandit

Greenie N00B Member
Well I got super lucky and had a buddy of mine lose interest in his old Nissan 240SX and he offered it up to me for free, so I grabbed some nator broz and we loaded up and drove from Colorado to South Dakota to grab a free car.

About the mess I picked up.
It's been sitting outside for about 2 years in a lot. It has a broken clutch pedal bracket. The interior and sound deadening on the floor is already ripped all out [emoji6]. Cracked dash, of course. 154,000 miles on ka24de. No front bumper, but has a bash bar. Already has some drift stitches on the front passenger fender.

Motor plans.
Honestly I'm not 100% sure what motor I want to slap in it. I do know I'm going against the norm and I'm building it for track days and not drifting, although I will still put in a hydraulic brake, just in case [emoji6]. As of right now I'm going to see if I can save the the current ka24de in it and use that to learn all about the rwd world [emoji23]. Overall I'm excited about. The aftermarket support is massive and way cheaper than the speed, at least what I've looked at so far.

Body plans.
Not sure on this yet, although I do know I want some sort of gray color but that will be way later.

Feel free to post your thoughts and opinions about a direction to go with the car.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biobandit09/?hl=en
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Go talk to my parents neighbor. He'll have a motor for it.

Whenever my dad talks to him about a friend getting a new project car, he responds with that as he has a couple built engines sitting in his garage waiting a new home. All GM and way more power than necessary.

Looks like the road trip was a blast.

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That's super awesome!!! Be sure to remind me when I start talking about motor swaps. For now I'd like to try and get the slow KA running, that way if I do put myself into a light pole it's slowly [emoji23][emoji23]

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Nice find.

I was all hot for one of these 15 years ago but at the time I couldn't find one in decent enough shape. Fuck that cracked dash and just finish gutting it, the magic of that car was the weight and suspension not the interior.

There is indeed an insane aftermarket for these cars, more than you will know what to do with.

That Ka24 engine is actually pretty peppy for an NA 4 banger, but because of a relatively low redline and low market support, most guys found it easy to do an sr20 swap than fiddle with the stock motor. An LS swap would probably be nice too.

Good luck, I'll be following the build with equal parts happiness and jealousy.
 
Going to be working on it this weekend. Still gotta figure out how I'm going to clean the fuel system out (suggestions?) and get vacuum lines, coolant, tranny fluid, and a battery.
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Update.

Going to be ordering some new fuel things and probably an NRG quick release steering wheel (because I've always wanted one).

Motor:
Drained the oil, what little that was left in there, and some of the coolant in the car replacing the thermostat and radiator hoses. Found out I need some brackets to hold the top of the radiator as it's just sitting there. Swapped out the spark plugs and I have new plug wires to install. Waiting to install that stuff because someone at auto zone fucked up and didn't transport my valve cover gaskets. I need to order tranny fluid online because it takes something specific and I haven't seen any in stores, so waiting to replace that.

Interior:
I also pulled some interior pieces out today and tossed them in the trash, hopefully they aren't required at sole tracks. Also found a little surprise on the interior, see pics.


This is my first time wrenching on something not a speed. Holy shit, it is insanely easy to work on!! I cussed way less that I would have doing the same things on a speed. The hardest thing was one of the back bolts for the valve cover near the firewall under some brake lines and trying to get the fuel injectors pulled but once I found an easy way to do it the rest came out real easy. I am loving this car, I really hope I can get the motor running so I can drive this Trash Panda around!!!
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You will learn to love some of the interchangeable parts on Nissans.

You should be able to rip those radiator brackets out of a maxima, and probably other cars too. Just look for the one with the most intact bushing. They also shared the same knock sensors too. I always pulled a spare at junkyards.

Looking good so far!

Check your water pump too, if you keep the existing one it might leak. They have a "weep hole" once one of the seals begins to leak, and it guides coolant down a specific passage on the block.
 
Yes, but they are not always in the same location.

On the old ford OBD1 engines (4 cyl and V8), they "wept" off the water pump neck since it was controlled by one of the serpentine belts. It was real easy to see.

On the Nissan vq30 engine, the water pump ran off the timing chain. So it wept out of a small passage in the block since the water pump was inside the timing cover. I'm not sure how the ka24 is, but knowing Nissan it's probably internal as well.

I'm sure there are some other versions, but when I first replaced a water pump on the vq30 engine I couldn't find the coolant leak at first. It was leaking down the block, so I inspected all the coolant hoses and thermostat gasket and still couldn't find it. Eventually I figured it out...
 
Updates

Pumped out the old fuel, it had a pretty bad smell. Still waiting on Enjuku to send my parts, I guess they were waiting on something to ship to them. Still annoying having to wait this long for parts.

Got the car up on 4 jack stands and started peeking around, found a ghetto ass exhaust fix and some other messed up stuff.

Today I'm replacing the diff and tranny fluid.

@Raider when you get a moment can you post the history report on here, I'm curious as to what is actually reported. It is a salvage title. Thanks <3!!
Vin: JN1AS44D7VW103037
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It's been a hot minute since I've updated.
Got everything running and can move the car under its own power. However I ended up doing a compression test and cylinder 4 is bad. Not a big deal for a car I got for free lol. I'm now planning out an LS swap for the car, this however will probably be a long expensive process. I'll try to remember to post my planned build prices when I get back to the computer. Thought I had pictures of the compression numbers I got but I can't seem to find them. If anyone is really curious they are on my insta: biobandit09

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BioBandit said:
It's been a hot minute since I've updated.
Got everything running and can move the car under its own power. However I ended up doing a compression test and cylinder 4 is bad. Not a big deal for a car I got for free lol. I'm now planning out an LS swap for the car, this however will probably be a long expensive process. I'll try to remember to post my planned build prices when I get back to the computer. Thought I had pictures of the compression numbers I got but I can't seem to find them. If anyone is really curious they are on my insta: biobandit09

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Click to expand...
I'm still suggesting this for your motor.

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/12/23/sixteen-power-automotive-engine/
 
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