S14 Build Looking for input

[Stubob]

Hello everyone. I am fairly new here, been checking in from time to time to read some of the threads and what not, but this is my first real post here so wish me luck!

A little about me, 28, always been into cars, but never had the resources or facilities to do much with them, other than buy and drive. I have always wanted to build a car of my own. I have owned a few Nissans and loved everyone, a 2003 350z track coupe, a 2006 Sentra SE-R, and now a 1995 Zenki S14 ( 240sx as it is American no Jap  )

The build in question is for the S14 as I no longer own the other two. I have a decent working knowledge of how a motor works, and understand basic theory and all that, but have never taken on a build before. So what better time than now right? Why not just jump in and give it a go.

SO what we have is a 1995 240sx with 192k on the chassis and approx. 165k on the current motor. At one point and time there was an aftermarket stereo system on the car but other than that it is stock. I have specifically refrained from any moding to this point as I wanted to build a car from the motor up so to speak.

I went and found a used KA24DE with a 5 speed tranny. The motor had an issue with the head, the kid I bought it from said he thought the machine shop gave him the wrong cam caps as if he tightened them the cams wouldn’t turn. SO whatever, I want to rebuild a head anyway. He also informed me that the engine had been rebuilt in 2007 by Jasper. There is a Jasper tag on the block and I am going to call them and get what information they have on it tomorrow. That is all I know about this engine to date.

Again bear with me as I do not know technical information and am lacking in some of the basic information.

In disassembly I noticed that yes it did indeed look like the machine shop gave him wrong cam caps. This brings me to my first question;

Should I get a new head entirely to do this build with? I have heard it both ways but always been told it’s a bad idea to take cam caps from one head and put with another. Is this true? I would like to try and use this head as it has been port and polished and shaved already but if I need a different head it’s no skin off my noose, just a little more time and money to get a different one.

As I continued to strip the block I noticed that the crank looks, at least to me, like it has been balanced and ground. Could some please look at the pictures of the crank and help me confirm or deny this?

(yes Confirm and deny ! ha ha any Eddie Izzard fans out there? I digress)
So, that is where we stand today. Block is bare and on my engine standing waiting for the next phase, which is where I am looking to get a little guidance.

What should I do next? I know most people say take block to machine shop, hot dip, bore, hone, line bore all that good stuff, but if it was in fact rebuilt less than 20k miles ago, which is seems it was, is all that really necessary? How can I check things like the straightness of my crank journals? Things like that? I know how to check my bore but how can I tell if it needs re-boring or honing?

Anyway, that is where we are currently. Once I decide what to do with the block, it will be on to picking components. I will update this build thread as I go along and want to ask for lots of input as this my first real build and I have no problem getting in there and doing it, I just hate messing shit up.

BTW, ultimate plan for car is 300-350hp once I can afford a turbo setup but I want it to run strong and fast till that time. I want to build the motor for a turbo but have it dependable until such a time that I can put one on as this is my daily drive and will be for the next few years.

So, let me know what you think.

BTW I am in the Columbia TN area of the world so any locals who know of great event’s meets or hell just wanna offer free knowledge and labor, let me know ha ha.

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