Quote:
Originally Posted by Bababou
If it were a USDM version sure, there is one in my area that has an LS2 and T56 for the same price as this JDM car. The one I'm looking at only has about 72K miles on it which is nothing on a stock Sr20det so plenty of life left in it. I'm looking for a fun and unique car to DD not a track monster.
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I hate to sound pessimistic but how do you know the mileage is accurate?
I used to visit a shop that brought right hand drive cars in with 200,000km, the owner would put a 66k cluster in the car and sell as low mileage.
All day long. Because nobody can tell the difference.
You can't really tell if it has 200k or 60k.
In fact, half the time you can't even tell the exact year given the short vin#. I've seen the guy cut the seat belt tags out of a car and sell a 98 as a 2002
Bringing in the car from another country goes around all of those laws and regulations about mileage, car fax, etc... and I would be highly suspicious of any car from 199x that claims to have only 50,000 miles or whatever.
Here is what I would do in this case at least. Simply perform a nice cold compression test. If the motor really has low miles it will either have insane carbon build up and need a head refresh to bring compression back. Or it will have superb compression (155psi across the board is fine).
If it shows 125 125 128 125 or similar, it has 200k miles
That is step 1.
Step2 is to investigate the PCV orifices and turbocharger compressor wheel condition.
get a nice macro shot of the compressor wheel. An OEM ball bearing turbo with that low mileage will show NO wear.
If you see little chips around the edges of the blade, or any kind of obvious wear, it has high mileage or was run without an air filter.
Both BAD signs.
anymore when it comes to sr20 engines, I always go into these situations expecting an engine rebuild. Regardless of how many 'miles' they have. Because the current owner will say about 80k, while the previous owner put 30k on it, the owner before that put 80k on it, and the guy before that put 65-100k on it in 199x after driving it for five to eight years in the first place.
And any engines are not cheap or easy to rebuild.
V8 rebuild failures, as well as 4-cylinder:
Low mileage engines fail, more reason to always use a cheap engine
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-blown-up.html
Don't rebuild that engine!
https://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/s....php?t=2401762
"stock is reliable on the track"
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...p?p=1598526132
Engine building (machine shop/paying for work instead of doing it yourself) screws you over most of the time
https://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/s...2527749&page=8
Even crate engines fail, use an oem block
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...crate-ls3.html
the Al. 5.3 is where its at:
http://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-ind...d-5-3-a-2.html
"I hear ya! Had more trouble with machining BS trying to use aftermarket parts than I care to admit. Wish I would have stuck to factory short blocks as well. Tired of pulling apart "built" motors when guys are making twice the power on factory original stuff and racing the whole season."
https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...l#post19525070
4-cylinder applications perhaps to an even worse degree
https://zilvia.net/f/showpost.php?p=6285960&postcount=4
If the car is actually low mileage I think 12k is more than fair considering the cost comparison to buying and properly swapping a USA version with a low mileage engine (Which doesn't exist, so...)
I mean we've seen all original 240sx go for 9k 10k with the factory KA engine. Even I let a 97 LE with 48k go for $9000. Makes you wonder