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JSpec Engine

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Eclipse IF

20+ Year Contributor
93
0
Jul 28, 2002
Ok I know the JSpec engine is supposed to have more power and what not but my question is does anyone things it's worth the time, moeny, trouble to swap the engines??? I personally don't plan on doing it I was just woundering....
 
me oh me, me oh me... wel i think it is.... stronger internals, bigger turbos, bigger exhuast manifold, bigger injectors, and bigger O2 housing.... to me thats like already 1200+ in parts alone
 
I looked into getting a true jdm motor but for the ist generation motors they had crank problems! I was told but a guy that imports them a sponsor of my team that there not worth the money! But if your looking to get one what was the cheapest you can get one! I can get one for about 1200 dollars!
 
everything that i read about the cyclone motors (6 bolt) lead me to believe that you are better off building your motor or if in need of a new engine, get a us 6 bolt from a us junk yard. the very minimal power gained is not worth the $500is extra that you spend on one. plus, if you get the 6 bolt galant version,,,,,it comes with the same 14b, same injectors, same everything but the intake manifold wich i heard is kind of a restriction unless used with a jdm ecu. but hey, you do get a nice red valve cover & most of the time the jdm engines are less beat & have way less miles on them
 
-On used JDM motor, you get what you paid for, here in SoCal because of competition, it range from $750 up. again you get what you paid for.
 
read the RRE website.... and u get chrome for an evo engine, red is for the galant VR4 engines...
 
JDM VR4 RS
Higher lift cams
lightened flywheel
3inch intake Elbow
lightened UDP
510cc injectors
big 16g turbo
cyclone intake manifold
8.5:1 compression
6bolt block
1g big rods/crank
better clutch

EVO III
big 16g turbo
7bolt block
8.5:1 compression
better exhaust manifold
better O2 housing
510cc injectors
Higher lift CAMS
3inch intake Elbow
titamium valve cover
There's more goodies about this, but thats all I could find right now.

=^.^=
 
Just out of curiosity, what is the GVR4 RS motor rated at in hp/tq? The guy I bought my car from had just had the swap done (35k on the engine) before he sold it to me. BTW- I am sure it is the RS cuz it has the 16G and the yellow top (510cc) injectors, he had taken off the cyclone intake and put the old one on though...I didn't know about the other extra stuff the RS had though. :D
 
I have an interesting story involving the JDM galant GRV4 Jspec engine. I bought a 1991 GSX at a local lot for 500 bucks knowing that the timing belt gave way......well it did it when i took it for a test drive....now theres a way to get a cheap car. Anyway. i pull the engine and tranny cause it had problems as well. i looked around this piss poor podunkville place i live and couldn't find anyone with an engine that had less than 150k miles on it. so i decide that i'll by at jdm engine and tranny for 1300 bucks have it shipped here and me put it in. and be able to do a bench rebuild on the stock engine at the same time. well im 3 months down the road. have the engine in haveing nightmares thinking about vacum lines and prothane motor mounts. anyway i think that its a good deal if you need an engine quick but its not for the faint of heart. if you get my drift.
 
I got a JDM VR-4 for $800, (510cc, red top ,etc), it isnt in yet, but I have to say that I think this whole low milege thing is total BS. They all claim that these come over with around 30K miles on them, THERE IS NO WAY. When I compared it to my motor with 80k on it, it was 10x worse, Absolutely every part on the JDM looked horrible compared to the same part on my 80k motor. PLUS, the fact that the timing belt had been changed. Anyone else think the "less than 35k thing is horse***t.

oh, yeah and a difference is that it is air/oil cooled
 
oh, yeah and another thing. When I got the motor, I got a flywheel for a FWD 6 bolt, and put it on (assuming that the one that the one that came with the motor was an awd, VR-4 right?) well, they both look identical to me, are they the same? Hobbes said that the JDM comes with a lighter flywheel, so if theyre the same, then ill want to put that one back on right?
 
Originally posted by snooze
he had taken off the cyclone intake and put the old one on though

-Cyclone intake mani is not emmision legal in Ca for lagging the EGR system.

-JDM motors are not always 30k miles, I had seen some that had been rebuild and painted orange(Chevy color?), some had been bleached that the head look brand new if you were to look throught the oil filler cap. take your chances.
 
i have a jdm 6blt sitting in the passanger seat of my talon along with a newly rebuilt head (the head was rebuilt when the previous owner skipped the timing belt on the jdm)..
it cost me $850 shipped from canada (nova scotia for those that care)
from the wear on the cylinder wallls, to the condition to the accessories, this motor DOES have less than 30xxx on it, about the head, it looks knew, but i won't know until i put the motor in.
All im doing is just buying gaskets, rings, and thowing it in with a ported 14b this october/november..we'll do a compression test, and hopefully beable to figure out the compression ratio of the motor (should be 7.8:1, i don't know anything about the vr4 rs 8.5:1 comp posted above).
but imo the jdms are a waste of money, this was just a good deal that i couldn't pass up, all the junkyard motors had over 150k on them.
 
JDM Motors arent worth it. Beleive i worked at a Shop that specialized in JDM motor swaps. There terrible to get right. They have ALOT more than 30k on it. But why do the look so clean? Well the short version is this. Most of them get cleaned before there sent to the US, Ever been to a dealorship and watch how the clean the motors for the used cars going on the lot. They use acid which eats the dirt and then they are sprayed with a hose. But why does the head look so clean? Well they have a special bleach/(i forget) mix that the cycle through the motor when they sell them. 95% of them were beat to hell before being taken out b/c the owner knew it was coming out why not have soem fun with it before hand. When u buy a motor u buy it as is with limited warranty. 95% of the JDM 16g motors we got in the turbos were blown.

So imho the jdm isnt worth the hassel. You pay for the 16g 510cc injector motor and u have a 25% chance of getting that.
 
This is great stuff!!! I was thinking about swapping out my engine for JDM. But, now I think I should just use the money to upgrade my engine.
 
now hold on a minute... the real reason that most jdm engines are junked is because the car that they are in is out of date and falling apart.
in japan they have a full car inspection twice a year....shaken....if i remember correctly....now you have to think about this.... japan is an island and you cant go much more than a few hundred miles at a time....since your on an island in the pacific your always having problems with rust...now comes the part about the engines coming out. yes more than likely they were used(duh) but so are most in the US and just as hard...my reasoning was that i got a tranny at the same time seeing as mine was in need of repair as well....it all depends on weather or not you have the time and patience to do it and do it right.
 
ok listen....my boy just got a 4g63 cyclone from streetimports.com. i know its the gvr4 j-spec engine but its also an automatic which makes he injector size and turbo size different from a manual. the turbo on the car says td04, and he also got another turbo that thy sent him that says td05h on it. i'm guessing they gave him the bigger manual turbo (td05h) along with the turbo alread on it (td04)...now my question is simple. What sizre are those turbos? do wehave a 14b on it already and a small 16g on the side? is it a 13b on it and a 14b on the side? and also, when one ofyou techies figures that 1 out,please let me know what size the injectors are....i think they're either 510cc or 450cc, and not the 390cc's that come on the non jap. auto 4g63....thanks a lot.....
 
How would we figure out what injectors you got dude, what color? Tdo4 is a 13b, so that means you probably got 14b on the side. Look at the compressor wheel to find out. If all the blades are the same then its a 14b, if they go big small big small...etc then its a 16g.
 
I recently purchased a jdm 4g63t and we swapped the motor using my car existing wiring harness. I was wondering if anyone new any altercations or switches need to be done because my car will not start amd i wondering if there is something we did wrong. The computer chip on the cyclone throttle body was broke and we switched it with ny original motor chip. Is this is a problem? also we chaged the cav sensor on the valve cover over from the old motor to the new one. These are all ideas in my head the car is getting took to mitsu dealer in a few days.
 
Suprisingly enough, I used to be totally against JDM motors, but after my 7bolt went for a walk, and the whole thing with the issues I was having trying to find a decent 7 bolt EVO motor (Some dorks wanted 3250 for a wrecked EVO1 motor/tranny/rear end. No thanks, guys.), I went VR4 motor, which is currently sitting on my engine stand.

Head is clean (I took off the valve cover), oil was still a little dirty, the little 13B on the uncracked 1G exhaust manifold has absolutely no shaft play at all, and spins smoother than my damn T28. Pulled the pan to clean it up and to remove the balance shafts, things are CLEAN down there. Like no abnormal bearing wear, rods still looked clean, the trash filter was clean, blah blah blah.

Granted, the valve cover was a little beat, a little moisture ruined a spark plug, but everything checked out clean.

Personally, I'd think to avoid the "higher performance" engines like the RS/Evo motors. It's pretty damn hard to harm an engine with 450's and a 13B. Who cares about 510's, cyclone intake manifold (I threw mine off. Maybe some eBay JDM dumbarse will buy it), and a 16G? Engine condition is by far more important than some bolt ons. It's not like 16G's are even that expensive.

Oh and EVO motors still all have the lower flowing intake manifolds, lower flowing heads, and weaker rods that they shared with the 2G 7 bolts. I still would've liked one, however, if only for the very direct drop in factor. Switching over all the parts/sensors is a pain in the ass.
 
I bought a jdm 4g63t from motorworks, inc in long island and have yet to get the thing in. What i have noticed so far is that there were markings on the cam gear cover with numbers but they looked like someone scratched them out intentionally. Also, the timing belt pulleys were rusted, but that might be because of the ride on a ship from JPN. The other thing i noticed is that the turbo had the same amount of shaft play(like zero) as my 13g with 50k on it. And finally...these brokers that deal in JPN know how many miles are on the damn things because most of the come with front clips. They are all full of S***. The only reason the clips arent shipped is bc you can fit a hell of a lot more motors in a crate than clips, which saves people like motorworks money on shipping.
 
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