O_O #1

Above is a picture of wonderful Nissan engineering from the late 1980 to early 1990's. The Nissan 240SX. I personally have owned 3 of these cars but the one that left the biggest impact was my 1991 SE (the trim level) Fastback. It was far from being pretty like the one above. Mine was white and had what seemed to be the standard for a high mileage 240sx; a dent in the passenger side fender and a worn driver's seat. The worn section, which is worn enough that the metal skeleton of the seat is showing, is on the outside lumbar support of the seat. A seat which caused your back to hurt for an entire day after just 10 minutes of sitting in it. Soon after owning it the cup-holder mod was preformed so I would have a cupholder. The previous owner, a friend of mine from high school, had switched exhausts and then switched again to put the stock one back on before he sold it. Unfortunately he just used some u-bolt clamps to put the muffler back on and it fell off driving it one day. Then later on the rest of the piping from the catalytic converter back to where the muffler should have been came off while driving over a speed bump. The resulting lack of exhaust provided for a nice deep, throaty sound emanating from the heart of the car under the hood. The engine to these works of engineering art was a truck motor. Or at least that is the joke about it. The Nissan 240SX exists in Japan as the Nissan Silvia. The Silvia, 1991 on up, is powered by a 2.0L all aluminum dual overhead cam inline four cylinder that was either naturally aspirated or turbocharged. The turbo version, the SR20DET, pumped out a fairly decent 215hp. The previous 1989-1990 Silvia had a CA18DET which is an 1.8L iron block, aluminum head, dual overhead cam inline four cylinder that produced around 185hp. However those crazy Japanese engineers figured that Americans would rather have a big torquey naturally aspirated four cylinder engine and the North American version of the car, the 240SX, came equipped with the KA24E/DE. The KA series of motors were 2.4L iron block, aluminum head that depending on the years either had a single overhead cam, 1989-1990, or a dual overhead cam, 1991-98, design producing 133hp and 155hp respectively. With 175k on the clock the KA24DE in my Fastback produced 129rwhp and 131rwtq which is really not bad considering the mileage and that it was running at 11:1 AFR (air to fuel ratio). Eventually throughout the year that I owned the car I put 30k hard miles on it delivering pizza for Valentino's at their 27th and Superior store. At 205k on the clock the clutch slave cylinder went out of the car and it ended up getting towed. The engine still ran but the car was unable to move under its own power. It ended up like the other 2 Nissan 240sx's that I have owned, not running. One of these was my first 240sx, my 1991 Fastback Super-HICAS with a lsd and four wheel steering and the other was my 1992 SE Coupe that I just sold to my friend Ryan. Ryan, who I met while getting involved in the local car scene, has ended up being one of my best friends. We had spents countless nights cruising around in my beat up Fastback or drifting in empty parking lots after it rained. That's what 240sx's are good for, drifting. They lack the power to really do anything impressive in the 1/4 mile but they handle like a dream. I don't know what happened to my Fastback that got towed, I ended up selling it to the company because I was broke at the time, but my Coupe is still in the hands of my friend Ryan who is currently in the process of rebuilding the engine with higher compression pistons from the KA24E (sohc version) for a little more performance. Once its done I can't wait for my back to start hurting again.