Quote:
Originally Posted by Casperjay
i will add my 2 cents since i have owned both shitty sr20's and rb20's..
both engines are unreliable as hell unless they are freshly rebuilt. even then ive seen brand new sr20's blow up doing a very soft pull down the road. the most fun of the 2 was an rb20, even though it also is horribly unreliable, it sounded like angels mating. and it had awesome torque when it wasnt blowing turbo seals and shit. if you wanna waste your money on one of these to id pick an rb and at least have some sort of enjoyment before it pops
|
If the engine has been taken care of before you get it (that's what's key), then these engines are about as reliable as any other engine (at least the SR for sure).
I've put over 100k miles on my SR (so figure 130k-150k total) yes I got it used, and figured if it blew I would rebuild it, but I have yet to have any problems with the engine. For years I have been running it with the stock gt2560r with about 13-14lbs of boost, and I've just now recently stepped it up to a gt2860r, and might upgrade it to the gtx2867 at the end of the year.
- Engine doesn't use a drop of oil
- I get 29 mpg on the highway
- idles nice, runs smooth, starts every time
The only issues I've ever had, I caused myself (boost leak, manifold came loose when I replaced turbo, and car ran HORRIBLE, when I replaced the spark plugs when the coil pack bolt broke before I could get a replacement, oh and a "tiny" bit of moisture gets on the coil pack, and it's misfire city)
So it has been a learning experience, but everything else has been solid. In fact, the only thing I've had to replace that wasn't your normal maintenance was the timing chain tensioner, and I replaced the timing chain while I was at it.
I think the SR's get a reputation for being unreliable is a two fold cause.
1. Yes, the part I "kind" of agree with you is, you don't know what you are getting. You are hoping that the engine was taken care of before you get it. The first thing I did was look at the spark plugs, and see if they were either new (meaning replaced and then I would have wondered for what reason) or if they had signs of detonation. They were brown and a little worn, as they should be, no white spots, then a compression test. The rest you'll see if you have any problems in the first few thousand miles (e.g. oil leaks, bad bearings,,ect ect) but if the engine was taken care of, it's just as reliable as anything else
2. This is the BIG one. You got people that want a bazzillion horsepower, and think they can squeeze it out of a 2.0L engine without any ill effects. For the longest time I've been running close to 270whp (so at least 300 FW) and that is 50% more than what the engine was designed for.
You have people that are cranking the boost with stock injectors, stock fuel pump, or worse trying to ghetto rig their way into more horsepower by "fooling" the MAF, or getting a cheap FPR and cranking the pressure to make up for smaller injectors.
A lot of the guys with 240s are cheap, not saying it's always bad, yes, I'm a bit thrifty myself, but there are times you have to spend the money if you want to go faster, and many chose to ignore the safe guards and turn up the boost without the proper supporting mods.
Okay,, there is my rant, but unless I got a unicorn SR, the engine is pretty reliable.