Featured Build: TJ Hunt's Nissan 240SX S14

Local YouTube auteur TJ Hunt stopped by MagnaFlow’s Global HQ here in Oceanside, California to get his latest project car dialed in using the dynamometer in our state-of-the-art Tech Center. The vehicle in question was none other than the venerable Nissan 240SX S14. To help him tune this JDM legend of the 90s, TJ brought along Jimmy Oakes, a man who’s made a name for himself on YouTube by getting the most performance possible out of pretty much any vehicle he can get his hands on.

OLD CAR, NEW LEAKS!?

The first order of the day was to get the S14 hooked up in the Tech Center and ready for a day of stress testing. However, after moving the car from its trailer to our dyno, TJ realized they had their work cut out for them as he spotted a big pool of fluid on the floor of the trailer when he went in to go grab something.

Initially he didn’t know if the 240 was responsible for the mess or if it was the 370Z that they’d been doing some drifting in recently. An inspection of the dyno’s rollers that the S14 was at that point already resting on revealed the unfortunate truth: the culprit was in fact the car to be tested.

Fortunately for TJ and Jimmy, this mechanical mishap was identified in the MagnaFlow parking lot, and getting the issue diagnosed and resolved was as straightforward as pulling it in to one of our lifts for a closer inspection.

As it turned out, the coolant leak was caused by a loose coolant return line that just needed to be tightened down. After a quick fastening and cleanup, the Nissan was finally ready to stretch its legs on the dyno.

After our Tech Center team gave TJ and Jimmy a quick rundown on how to operate our dyno, they were finally ready to fire the S14’s engine-swapped SR20 up again and really let it rip. TJ was particularly excited as this was his first time experiencing dyno-testing from the driver’s seat.

BAD TIMING

The initial run in 4th gear revealed that the engine speed was increasing rather slowly under load, even for one of the higher gears. This, coupled with walking ignition issues, prompted a quick trip to AutoZone to pick up a timing light to get a closer look at what was going on.

As they suspected, the timing was off, by about 10 degrees. With the timing corrected, it was back to testing, first in 4th gear, then in 3rd gear.

BOOST OR BUST

As they cranked up the boost, things were looking good with solid increases in horsepower after each test. That said, when they attempted a run at 16 psi they hit a wall at around 6,000 rpm and suddenly found that they had 0 psi.

Jimmy thought it was either a wastegate line pop-off or, more likely, a coupler pop-off. His intuition proved prophetic, as the problem was the intercooler coupler. After reattaching the coupler, they were once again ready to roll.

TUNED TO PERFECTION

After a series of trials, tribulations, fixes and fine tunings, the results spoke for themselves: an increase of 129 horsepower at around 14 to 16 psi of boost! The results exceeded TJ’s highest hopes. At such reasonable levels of boost, the car will be a reliable, unstressed daily driver.

A final test drive revealed the night and day difference the tuning session made, and now all that remains to finish the car is a new set of brakes and bushings. Check out the video above for a more in-depth view of what it took to dial in this modern JDM classic. We were more than happy to help TJ and Jimmy get the most performance possible out of their S14. Of course, it was all in a day’s work for our dyno, which is used to increase vehicle performance every day. That’s why MagnaFlow’s dyno-tested and dyno-approved exhaust systems are the best in the business.