Thread: Greetings from South Carolina!

Hello all!
This past month i felt bored and decided i needed another project on top of my garage that's already teeming with them. I ended up getting a 1996 200sx SE-R with high miles and enough oil leaks to put the exxon-valdeez disaster to shame. After spending the first week removing ancient window tint (not one; but two layers!) I decided i loved the car and was going to do all i could to undue the years of neglect. Well, the car surged/lunged/bucked in first gear (air intake duct cracked), vibrated like mad (engine mounts in rough shape/dog bone mount non-existent), had a dead rat caught in one of the rear brake rotor shrouds (will post a picture!), a speedo/odometer that worked...sometimes, and had a pablo picasso designer interior. Well window tint from hell removed (thanks paint stripper!) as well as any bits of interior that were broken/other wise useless. Now the fun begins! I pulled the transaxle and motor and set to work. Replaced all of the dodgy OEM engine mounts with prothane inserts, replaced the rear main seal, the valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, new clutch pack (stage 1), flywheel deglazed, and everything given a good/thorough powerwashing! I was waiting on my pacesetter headers from summitracing... but i got an email today stating they were no longer available... so looks like the crusty stock ones will be run for now. Aside from the notorious "ebay headers" there really aren't any options (pacesetter, hotshot, stillen, etc etc). Shame. I cant be delayed by nonexistent headers! I still have a laundry list of parts to order and a mountain cluttering my work bench to install. Thanks for reading my first rant!
-Devon aka 2rast2curious

New alternator, a/c delete 6 rib belt (thanks to this forum for the p/n!), new pwr steering/h2o belt, new exhaust manifold gasket, clutch pilot bushing, and radiator hoses on order. Time to finish clapping the bits back on/replace the dry rotted lines/filters in the engine bay, drop the engine/trans/new axles in and i'll be turning the key again. I can see i've already run into a problem with the sr20... i only own one of them! Id like to get this car on the road and work on building up a motor. Nothing unique i know but we all have to start somewhere! If anyone is looking to clear their garage shelves of unused motor bits i am certainly interested. Id like to find a short block to start from scratch or a long block if someone has an extra. It will be a daily driver/occasional track day car. I'm located in south carolina about 10 miles from the GA border. Thanks in advance.

welcome to the forum. I would just buy a sr20ve to power the car.

That seems to be a popular swap. If youve got a ve block youd like to get rid of or know someone that does i am certainly interested
A buddy of mine wants me to turbo my de but its no spring chicken with 210+k miles on it. Id hate to see how it would respond to running boost.

do a compression and leak down test. It would not surprise me if the motor is good mechanical condition. I have seen de's boosted with 200k on them. The motor was way over built to begin with.

Andreas miko sells bare ve blocks.

Yeah would not be a bad idea to run a compression test. Having just replaced some of the gaskets/seals on the motor i think the biggest issue would be blowing the seals i havnt changed. When i dropped the base pan (between oil pan and engine block) i couldnt believe the amount of carbon and sludge caked up everywhere. I have no doubt the motors were overbuilt but im afraid that only encouraged the previous owner of my ride to neglect the basic pm's.

Welcome to the forum!

Since you're in SC, be sure to check out the Convention section of the forum. It's our annual meet that's being held in the Atlanta area this year. There's also a sticky in this section explaining to new folks what it is. We loved for you to get your B14 road worthy and join the fun!

I know what you mean. My 94 se-r had a motor that looked like it had not been taken care of. It compression tested good but I took it out for a low mileage jdm motor and boosted it.