The (More Fun) Daily Driver Build

Sorry about the hit man -- sucks I know.

My 242 got hit back in Feb. 2002 in Knoxville, TN with almost identical damage to yours. Hit started closer to the wheel so it pushed the fender into the tire and then bounced off before it took out the tail light. However, it ripped my commando bumper off the strut (just like your pic) and jackknifed the passenger side of the bumper into that rear fender also torquing/tearing the unibody pieces underneath that held the passenger side strut. 2 ruined rear qtrs without touching the tail lights, deck lid or rear valance.

How did your accident occur? The truck that hit me was coming towards me in the other lane when he got rear ended and lost control side swiping me as he moved by. His damage was to his driver's side front.

That was way worse than mine.

In this case, the ding dong was parked next to me. He backed out and caught the car with his bumper. Damage was limited to the quarter panel and bumper. Happened while I was in the store. To the guy's credit, he stuck around and is insured. I'm quite sure that the damage to the 2017 Nissan will far exceed the value of my car.

Insurance company will likely total the car.

In the meantime, I mashed the panel back out and threw a replacement set of bumper shocks and (sh*tty) bumper on it. I'll wrangle with insurance on the value, buy the car back for scrap value, get it inspected by the state patrol and get a new title.

I figured he dragged the front end past you when backing out. No doubt, my hit was harder. "Identical damage" wasn't quite right - it's just seeing your rear qtr damage and the bumper that way brought back memories. Had I let my insurance company handle the fix I believe they would have totaled mine too. But I had a choice - and I let the other guy's insurance handle it. And they (Farmers) paid for the fix no questions asked. 2 replacement qtr panels and I paid the additional amount to have the whole thing painted while it was there. And still a clean title. Lucky I guess.

They don't have to total it. These cars are too old to be booked. Therefor there value is based upon comps. If it was a new Prius they would fix it. That's backwards as it would be less effort to sign on the dotted line and buy a new one. Push push and push the insurance company will do there job.

USB port that fits in the switch plates.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H0IJX98/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You never have to buy back something you own. They will just wrangle a number with you and give you much less than you should get and move on. Have all the receipts and proof that your car is nice and you get a bit more out of them.

Wish you well with the car. It's a nice one. Thanks for the mention of the drive cameras. I want to add them to my cars.

Well, I came to an agreement with the insurance company. Frankly, I came out ok. I got what amounts to every penny I have in the car and retained ownership. USAA really didn't argue, just required documentation (receipts) and a description.

I've already knocked out the panel (for the most part so far), replaced the bumper and shocks, and put new (Estonian) taillights from Ebay on the car.

Other than the PITA about dealing with this, I'm reasonably satisfied with how it was resolved.

I still have a little bit of work to do to get the quarter straight and that's about it.

Once the state sends me a notice, I'll have the car inspected by the state patrol and that's it. Wa state doesn't even re-issue the title as branded. Its too old for them to care.


To answer the earlier question about how this occurred, the guy was backing out of the parking spot next to me fast and cut the wheel too soon. If he had been ben more interested in driving than fiddling with his stereo, he wouldn't have hit me. I was in the store at the time and didn't see the accident. To his credit, he didn't take off or anything, called his insurance company immediately and told him that he was at fault - and was well insured. Sometimes you really can't judge a book by its cover. In his case, the cover said 'pot smoking moron', but he did everything that he was supposed to. I even wrote out an admission of guilt and he signed it readily. In the end, I was taken care of and he'll be without his car for several weeks. I'd say he got the worse end of the deal.

Still would have preferred for it not to happen.

Little bit been happening here and there.

Broke a valve spring on the way home a couple weeks ago. Thought the motor had let go (sounded like a rod knock), so just finished driving it home. Was pretty funny when my family came running out of the house at the noise.

All the racket was the shim bouncing around inside the valve cover.

Interestingly, it didn't damage the head at all. The edges of the #3E cam lobe were a bit chipped, but nothing catastrophic. R/R head, new Volvo stiffer valve springs, lapped the valves and cleaned up the short turn in the ports. Fished a replacement bucket from my horde. Installed head studs as well. I find it interesting that the head stud we use on the B21/23/230 is a Cummins Turbo Diesel stud.

Car runs fine. Hardest part of the deal was compressing the broken spring enough to get the keepers out of it. Was *just* barely enough to get them out. Used an Elring HG.

I had been having issues with a little bit of pre-ignition knock. I played around with the Nuke gear both advancing (turning cam clockwise as viewed from the front) and retarding (counterclockwise) the cam. Car progressively ran like sh*t when advancing the cam. Better retarding. I'm currently running ~5deg retarded. The only thing that I can think of is that since I have a high compression motor already, I can't use any more compression as I don't have enough octane to prevent knock. Car is smoother and power more linear. I'll likely move it a couple more degrees either way to see how it drives.

The crosshatch on the bores has finally disappeared, but there is no appreciable ridge.

So as the car stands now:
83 B23 high compression (flat top piston) motor.
slightly shaved head, ports cleaned up.
High(er) tension springs.
H cam.
Nuke gear.
ARP studs.
Converted to round tooth.
Still rocking LH2.

IPD 28/25mm bars.
IPD springs.
Bilstein HD absorbers.

M46 with Avalanche short throw shifter.

Other items to play with:
1. I have a couple NIW modified B21F intakes. I'd like to fit one up at some point. Just finding time to do so is difficult.
2. I have an Eaton LSD. I'd like to find either a 3.73 or a 3.91 gear set to fit up to it. I hope to find one in one of the yards that they don't want an arm and a leg for. Buying the entire axle, rebuilding it and then just swapping the axle appeals to me a lot.

Love this car. Have you left the SAI correctors in the middle spot? How do you like it?

USAA has been good to me over the years as well.

Sadly, I haven't installed them yet. I went to do so and couldn't get one of the bolts out of the tube. I could break it off, but not thrilled about the prospect.

The manual steering has worn out its welcome after years living with it. I have managed to acquire a ZF power rack. I'll rebuild that and replace the strut tube when I swap the rack. That way, I only have to align it once. I'll also install the camber plates I have at the same time.

FYI, one of David Samuel's strut brackets does in fact fit under a flathood on an LH motor'd car.

I did that too. Had the manual rack. Went to a looped ZF. Much better. Still could be quicker I think. May try the SAI thingys.

I was able to get almost -1* camber with the stock springs. I use the PS ball joints for caster. It drives OK, but still wanders more than I would like on worn roads.

Thinking about going with Ben's basic mount / bearing upgrade to replace the aging OE mounts. It's only money...

LC4CARL said:

I did that too. Had the manual rack. Went to a looped ZF. Much better. Still could be quicker I think. May try the SAI thingys.

I was able to get almost -1* camber with the stock springs. I use the PS ball joints for caster. It drives OK, but still wanders more than I would like on worn roads.

Thinking about going with Ben's basic mount / bearing upgrade to replace the aging OE mounts. It's only money...

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I'll just do full power steering. I'm tired of cranking 235mm wide tires on manual racks. That size tire on a 242 also means wander on the highway. Tends to rut track.

I'll put a new moog balljoint on each side as well. They have grease zircs on them. Expensive though.

I like the look of the lux steer stuff as well.

adjusted the cam gear again. I ended up ~2 degrees retard in order to prevent knock.

quillc said:

I'll just do full power steering. I'm tired of cranking 235mm wide tires on manual racks. That size tire on a 242 also means wander on the highway. Tends to rut track.

I'll put a new moog balljoint on each side as well. They have grease zircs on them. Expensive though.

I like the look of the lux steer stuff as well.

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Do wider tires contribute to "wander?" Mine's not terrible, but it is there. (215/55R16)

LC4CARL said:

Do wider tires contribute to "wander?" Mine's not terrible, but it is there. (215/55R16)

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Yeah, they will. The wider tires like to rut track. Gets worse as the steering wears.

Large rock on the highway at 75mph. Raining heavily and didn't see it till it was too late to avoid fully. Better than my oil pan I suppose. Pinched the tire as well. Suspension seems unharmed.

Had to buy a pair of tires (so that I have a matched pair) as well as pull one of my snows off (they were wasted anyway) for the rim.

On a serious note, your fender bender is the perfect excuse to get some fresh paint on the back of the 242! This is a great project!

Interesting to know that WA does not reissue the title as branded. Wish I could say the same.

Shadow Ninja said:

On a serious note, your fender bender is the perfect excuse to get some fresh paint on the back of the 242! This is a great project!

Interesting to know that WA does not reissue the title as branded. Wish I could say the same.

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You would think so, but I just hammered it back out till the new tail light was able to seal and called it a day.

My theory is that they think that if the car is over 25 years old, they figure that its essentially worthless, so why bother?

Nice car, and nice work done to it.
With an H-cam and pretty much standard head a B23 produces the most power with the cam set so the #4 intake valve is 3,2-3,5 mm open with crank at tdc.
Ignition is tricky with H-cams, its easy to get detonation with that weird cam profile but set it to about 5 degrees at idle and about 28 degrees at high rpm and adjust from there. Some modification of distributor is a must.

Da_Snake said:

Nice car, and nice work done to it.
With an H-cam and pretty much standard head a B23 produces the most power with the cam set so the #4 intake valve is 3,2-3,5 mm open with crank at tdc.
Ignition is tricky with H-cams, its easy to get detonation with that weird cam profile but set it to about 5 degrees at idle and about 28 degrees at high rpm and adjust from there. Some modification of distributor is a must.

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Its interesting that you say that, its about where I ended up with the cam timing and base ignition. No science involved, just making small adjustments over time to try to eliminate knock while making the most power. I would say that it makes almost as much power as my stock 84 242GLT.

I didn't modify the distributor, but it has about 30 degrees total advance max.

I don't have a timing belt cover on the motor (due to the round tooth conversion), but I use the crank gear timing mark (the one used to set the gear position when installing the belt) instead with an adjustable timing light. Works very well.