buying a overheating & possibly misfiring s14.. need advice from you fellow zilvians!

[JZenki]

Checked out this 2nd owner s14 today

Acceleration feels great and its a smooth ride.. BUT while at a stop it chokes at idle until you hit the throttle it goes back to normal.. that's a misfire right?

Valve gasket for sure needs some changing along with grommets, valve cover is caked with oil and looks like the oil is seeping into the spark plug holes.. my guess is that's the reason why its misfiring?

Timing chain rattle, yep guide needs to go!

Air inside the top coolant hose, owner claimed the thermostat needs to be swapped, last time coolant was changed was a year ago when radiator was swapped..

Its his wifes car, he told me it started overheating 4 months ago and she's been driving it that way ever since, 5 days a week 5-10 miles a day.. what I'm afraid of is since she's been running I that way for a while, wouldn't the head gasket be done? It still runs good, and I WANT IT!!! I have til morning to decide.. any input would help.

[JZenki]

Cel is on due to thermo is wat the owner said.. he claimed his mechanic said it needs a valve adjustment aswell? That's the iffy part..


Oh and the mechanic offered him to rebuild the engine for 1500... but why? is 1500 a good estimate for a rebuild? Or is the mechanic bullshitting him?

[pacotaco345]

how much is it? also you should replace the timing setup not just remove the guides. especially since you need to pull the head off anyways to fix the headgasket. also thats proly a vacuum leak not a misfire

[cbcm2435]

if its cheap enough, buy it and swap a different motor in, dohc ka's are cheap

[JZenki]

He was asking 2k until I saw it, then he wanted 1850.. how much would a timing set up be including labor @ around 90 per hour? What about the vacuum leak? Is that a big job?

With the high demand of 240s and ka's in my area nowadays, it's beginning to be alittle hard to find a good engine for a good price. When you do find them for cheap they come from those "I don't know guys" who tell you the engine needs to be freshend up to be thrown into the engine bay and I'd rather not go that route, it'll be too much for a base auto s14 that I'm planning to just beat around... when I could just drop another 2k and get a fresh SE.

[fliprayzin240sx]

I'd bring a compression tester, a bit of oil and test the compression to see how healthy the bottom end is.

[s14j]

i payed 1550 for my s14 with a blown head gasket and snapped timing chain.
i put in a used ka and it was no good, its hard to buy a motor that have been used or especially been taking out of a car due to swaps eta, unless seller is 100% although iv had 2 bad exp first valves in a ka and the next one had bad rings and both owners swore that they where 100%,

to cut it short i fully rebuilt a ka, now no problems or worrying, that's the best to do you can rebuilt the one that's in the car.

i would lowball a bit more on the price unless its super clean mines was fully stock.

[pacotaco345]

Originally Posted by JZenki

He was asking 2k until I saw it, then he wanted 1850.. how much would a timing set up be including labor @ around 90 per hour? What about the vacuum leak? Is that a big job?

If you're willing to pay $90 an hour for labor instead of learning to work on the car yourself, a 240 isn't for you. Don't really mean to sound like a jerk flaming a new guy but its true. There's a huge community out there willing to help you learn as long as you don't expect people to spoon feed you.

[S14Serge]

I totally agree with pacotaco345, I have learned a whole lot about car's ever since owning an S-chassis. Part of that is because they are older cars and will require maintenance to get them back into to great daily driving form. But I can't complain it's been awsome working on my s14 knowing it in and out lol. Good luck