Going to be buying a couple JDM motors this spring. We had a go-to at the dealership, but I'm looking to shop around a little. Any recommendations?
All I can say is, avoid JDMEnginesCorp on eBay. The SR20DET redtop I bought from them was a total mess, and the previous owner had obviously hit a tree or something, because the engine had sucked a chunk of the intercooler end-tank into the intake manifold, plus the oil had never been changed, it was a gelatinous black sludge. After opening the block to find all this out, JDMEC said my warranty was null and void because, quote "You should have just installed it in the car as is and tried to start it. Opening the engine voided the warranty"
I remember your horror story. Thanks for the name of the company. They all have caveats about warranties on performance engines, but I'm just looking for low mileage stock replacements, so hopefully it'll go better.
For future reference, I bought from JDM Engine Import VA. https://www.ebay.com/usr/jdmengineimportva-16?_trksid=p2047675.l2559 Engine came quickly. It had oil in it, which was in very good shape (I wish I was thinking ahead, I would have grabbed a clean container and saved some for an analysis). The Oil pan is on the list of parts that has to be changed to work with the USDM manifold, and the inside looked excellent. Hopefully I'll be able to hear it run in the next week or so.
Random question, but my buddy has had some issues lately where it seems like he's way over filled on oil. Essentially what happened is we did some maintenance stuff and in the process changed the oil. He put in a whole 4 qt jug plus a little more, cuz that's how much we always put in a WRX. However, it came back as over filled on the dipstick. One thing I noticed is that the drain plug is on the driver side and not the pass side of the oil pan, like on all 3 or 4 of the WRX motors I've worked on prior (because typically I can drain the pan and the filter into the same drain pan at the same time). Part of me thinks maybe somebody changed the pan for some reason at some point? It's a bugeye wagon.
I don't know the turbo engines very well, but this one definitely had a different oil pan due to the exhaust manifold style, which looked like it would have less capacity. And, the drain plug was on the other side.
