Advice on a 240sx?

[M1chael]

I've been searching and searching for some sort of automobile for myself for as little money as possible (lost my job recently, and am not very keen on finding another one soon).

 

My girlfriend and I are out walking and happen upon a '93 240sx for sale with a marquee of $750. I didn't take alot of time to check it out (girlfriend wasn't real interested) but it looked like a nice, clean black auto nissan. The next day my g/f tells me to call him (i dont' remember the #, but she's crazy like that. she can remember anyone's phone number or address by looking at it once).

 

I give him a ring and he says the rod bearings were recently replace and the main bearing is going out now. He says other than that it's in perfect daily driver condition. I've been reading about te KA24de on the internet in my spare time and as far as 4 banger tuner engines go, this looks like the one I'd want to work on most.(That, and it's a Nissan ).

 

My question is this: how much would the main bearing be to replace, and what should I ask this guy about the car whenever I meet him? FOr 750 bucks, it seems like it would need alot of work. But I've never seen or heard it run. What are your opinions?

[blueovalz]

I would ask him why the bearings need to be replaced. I've got 197K on mine ('92), and the bearings appear to be fine. In fact this has been about the best, most maintenance free, vehicle I've had in a while (and I drive it hard!). So, depending on the mileage, I'd take that into consideration.

[Drax240z]

Check for rust under the hood at the top of the front strut towers. (likely not a problem with those cars in Texas, but all of them up here are starting to go there) Even if you have to swap in a different engine it's still a deal I think. You can get used engines all day long for cheap from a wreckers. The KA24DE is fairly robust, but they do seem to have some issues with upper timing chains making noise/eating tensioners/etc. It's a noise that can be mistaken for a rod knock too.