A change of plans

Alright, the plan has changed a little bit. Originally I was going to disassemble the 240sx to use the KA24DE engine, as well as a few other donor parts. But dismantling a car (in addition to building one) seems like a lot of extra work-- especially only for the engine and only a few other parts.

Today I bought another engine to use instead-- a CA18DET. It's lighter and more powerful than the KA24DE. It's got a factory turbo too :) It also comes with a five speed transmission.

Here it is:



CA18DET Specs:

• 1.8L Inline 4
  
• Horsepower: 173 @ 6400RPM
  
• Torque: 166 lb-ft @ 4000RPM
• Garrett T25 turbocharger
• ~7500 RPM redline
• Dual overhead cams, 16 valves
• iron block, aluminum head

It's starting to look like something...

So here's the frame so far. It's starting to look more like a car.



All these pieces are tack welded. I started fully welding some of the joints-- wow, this is going to be a lot of welding.

The Rear Bulkhead

This is the rear bulkhead. It'll form the back of the passenger compartment. Most of these joints are just tack welded at this point.



Here are some tack welds up close:



Here you can see me using the magnetic angle gauge on this frame piece. This way I can make sure that these uprights are perpendicular to the base before tack welding them into position.