My 1990 Nissan Stanza Rebuild Project. Warning HUGE post - Page 3 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

waltert · 05-11-2005, 12:53 AM

most automotive repair classes are worthless unless you're going to go through 50 of them to be a dealer tech.

find a friend who can help you out, or offer to clean an engine machine shop (free of charge) in return for them showing you a few things.

find the best service manual available for the car and just study it.

if you're mechanically inclined, it'll make sense eventually

or just peruse the internet...there's enough information about cars on the net to melt your brain

merkerguitars · 05-16-2005, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hrandani

Wow. I wonder what kind of education you've had in order to be able to do this type of work?

Any advice on where a layman can get the kind of know-how to rebuild an engine? I think there's a community college that offers courses nearby, but I was a little intimidated by the prospect of taking auto repair classes.

Actually I've never taken an engine class besides small engines my senior year in high school and I had to teach most of it due to having a new teacher. I have learned alot by myself and from other gearheads I know. Most of it I learned from my dad. Growing up my parents were pretty poor so everything that broke we fixed ourselves. I like doing it and yes the best way to learn is from others, I have educated many people and many people have educated me.

Scorps · 05-17-2005, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merkerguitars

Actually I've never taken an engine class besides small engines my senior year in high school and I had to teach most of it due to having a new teacher. I have learned alot by myself and from other gearheads I know. Most of it I learned from my dad. Growing up my parents were pretty poor so everything that broke we fixed ourselves. I like doing it and yes the best way to learn is from others, I have educated many people and many people have educated me.

My education is the same if something broke I had to fix it, its the best thing you can ever learn

merkerguitars · 05-17-2005, 10:52 PM

Here a before and after for you guys to look at

Scorps · 05-18-2005, 10:14 AM

Beauitful

How much does one of them red or yellow top batteries run for? I was thinking of getting one.

merkerguitars · 09-15-2005, 10:40 PM

Ok here's an update of what has been happening so far with my nissan project.

Well I did get it running and it was driveable and the only real problem I had was with the transmission, the fuggin torque converter wouldn't lock up, it wasn't a real big deal, still got better gas mileage than my cadillac and was way nicer of a ride (not big and floaty like my beast of a previous car). Then coming home one day the transmission started to slip like crazy and I mean insanely bad. The top speed I was able to get was about 15mph, which sucked really bad

. So I let that sit for awhile and drove my parents beater lincoln town car (cadillac in tank fuel pump died, and you had to drop the tank to change it, plus leaking 5 quarts of oil a week sucked and was spendy, plus 15mpg, eek). So I start calling around some rebuild shops, call up a guy in a town about 15 miles away, he wanted $1800 to rebuild it (that was with dropping it rebuilding it, reinstalling it). I'm like screw that, the car isn't worth that much. So I ask him how much if I bring the transmission in. He said $1000, still wwwaaayyy out of my price range, so I call some tranny shops about rebuild kits, about $400 for a kit, and that shop said they wouldn't even rebuilt it do to the transmissions being so finickey that they can't be liable for failure. So I contemplated doing a 5 speed conversion. After a few months and while at the drag races I met a guy that raced a totally homemade souped up 240sx, the guy lived about an hour from me and we started to chat about nissans (this guy is a nissan nut, he owns a couple maximas, an altima, a hardbody truck, and that 240sx), and he started to tell me he owned two stanzas. He's like I can get you a 5 speed parts car (with a bad clutch) so i'm like cool, so he told me to call him in a week. So I gave him a ring and he said sorry I can't get you that parts car, but I'll sell you my daily driver, I asked him whats wrong (lots of rust, lots of miles 214,000 to be exact, but runs like a champ, also the cv joints are getting bad) So I ask him how much? And he tells me, $200 cash and a spare 5 speed for my 240sx, so i go pull a transmission out of a junkyard, go to his house and drove the car home (learning a stick was kinda fun). So know I'm gonna convert it to a 5 speed for sure, the hardest part will be cutting out the bolt holes for the clutch pedal assembly, but it shouldn't be too big of deal. The transmission I need was used in MANY models of nissans over a long year span. So it should cost me about $300 to do the swap (transmission, clutch and all). But for now my rusty white stanza will get me by for awhile.

92stanza · 09-26-2005, 02:43 PM

WOW!!!, thats all i can say me myself owning a stanza and looking at this being done man this is something else dude you really have the skill That engine looks awesome!! good job on it. Hopefully you still have the stanza and if you do you need to check out http://borgsstanzaland.forumsplace.com/index.html and also come check out my 92 nissan stanza http://www.cardomain.com/ride/386812

mastertakana · 09-27-2005, 04:49 AM

Dude, you are one ambitious dude.

05-17-2005, 10:52 PM	#84 (permalink)
merkerguitars Buffering......... Location: Wisconsin...	Here a before and after for you guys to look at __________________ Donate now! Ask me How! Please use the search function it is your friend. Look at my mustang please feel free to comment! http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=26985

09-15-2005, 10:40 PM	#86 (permalink)
merkerguitars Buffering......... Location: Wisconsin...	Ok here's an update of what has been happening so far with my nissan project. Well I did get it running and it was driveable and the only real problem I had was with the transmission, the fuggin torque converter wouldn't lock up, it wasn't a real big deal, still got better gas mileage than my cadillac and was way nicer of a ride (not big and floaty like my beast of a previous car). Then coming home one day the transmission started to slip like crazy and I mean insanely bad. The top speed I was able to get was about 15mph, which sucked really bad . So I let that sit for awhile and drove my parents beater lincoln town car (cadillac in tank fuel pump died, and you had to drop the tank to change it, plus leaking 5 quarts of oil a week sucked and was spendy, plus 15mpg, eek). So I start calling around some rebuild shops, call up a guy in a town about 15 miles away, he wanted $1800 to rebuild it (that was with dropping it rebuilding it, reinstalling it). I'm like screw that, the car isn't worth that much. So I ask him how much if I bring the transmission in. He said $1000, still wwwaaayyy out of my price range, so I call some tranny shops about rebuild kits, about $400 for a kit, and that shop said they wouldn't even rebuilt it do to the transmissions being so finickey that they can't be liable for failure. So I contemplated doing a 5 speed conversion. After a few months and while at the drag races I met a guy that raced a totally homemade souped up 240sx, the guy lived about an hour from me and we started to chat about nissans (this guy is a nissan nut, he owns a couple maximas, an altima, a hardbody truck, and that 240sx), and he started to tell me he owned two stanzas. He's like I can get you a 5 speed parts car (with a bad clutch) so i'm like cool, so he told me to call him in a week. So I gave him a ring and he said sorry I can't get you that parts car, but I'll sell you my daily driver, I asked him whats wrong (lots of rust, lots of miles 214,000 to be exact, but runs like a champ, also the cv joints are getting bad) So I ask him how much? And he tells me, $200 cash and a spare 5 speed for my 240sx, so i go pull a transmission out of a junkyard, go to his house and drove the car home (learning a stick was kinda fun). So know I'm gonna convert it to a 5 speed for sure, the hardest part will be cutting out the bolt holes for the clutch pedal assembly, but it shouldn't be too big of deal. The transmission I need was used in MANY models of nissans over a long year span. So it should cost me about $300 to do the swap (transmission, clutch and all). But for now my rusty white stanza will get me by for awhile. __________________ Donate now! Ask me How! Please use the search function it is your friend. Look at my mustang please feel free to comment! http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=26985

09-27-2005, 04:49 AM	#88 (permalink)
mastertakana Crazy	Dude, you are one ambitious dude. __________________ All I know the time it is gettin dread Need alot of trees up in my head

05-11-2005, 12:53 AM	#81 (permalink)
waltert Insane	most automotive repair classes are worthless unless you're going to go through 50 of them to be a dealer tech. find a friend who can help you out, or offer to clean an engine machine shop (free of charge) in return for them showing you a few things. find the best service manual available for the car and just study it. if you're mechanically inclined, it'll make sense eventually or just peruse the internet...there's enough information about cars on the net to melt your brain

05-18-2005, 10:14 AM	#85 (permalink)
Scorps Lost!! Location: Kingston, Ontario	Beauitful How much does one of them red or yellow top batteries run for? I was thinking of getting one.

09-26-2005, 02:43 PM	#87 (permalink)
92stanza Upright	WOW!!!, thats all i can say me myself owning a stanza and looking at this being done man this is something else dude you really have the skill That engine looks awesome!! good job on it. Hopefully you still have the stanza and if you do you need to check out http://borgsstanzaland.forumsplace.com/index.html and also come check out my 92 nissan stanza http://www.cardomain.com/ride/386812