Read if you are shopping for an SR Swap

[Garage Battle]

Ok, if this pisses some people off...good. If this keeps someone from making a mistake in the future...better.


As some of you know Ive been shopping for an SR lately. The usual...RWD SR20DET motorset. Ive been looking around for about 2-3 months now. What I've found is that there are several different type of motor dealers when it comes to SR's...


1. The Reputable Dealer based on Actually Selling Motors: This would be your Heavy Throttle, Neishlin Motors, Phase 2 Motortrend, Unstable Hyrbids. Some offer motorsets, some offer clips, some offer both. You will usually pay about $2500 to get anything from these guys. Also Heavy Throttle appears to want payment 4-6 weeks before you get a motor...but, they're reputable. Neishlin is an example of how everyone should do it. You can trust em but it will be a few extra $$$ for the comfort.

2. The Reputable Dealer who HASNT sold any motors: This is your typical guy on a message board. He has been talking to people for a while, is well known and respected. Problem is, this person has never actually SOLD any motors to anyone....people base their trust on him off of his web personality. The fault lies in the nice person to people, who is probably unexperienced in ordering motors, especially SR's. Problems arise, deposits and possibly pre-payments are needed, and then they sit and pray that what they've been promised from their suppliers acutally is good. An example of this would be Dauntless on Fresh Alloy. Also ChrisB on club240...almost every board has one of these. (and instead of being offended by this take it to heart and prove people wrong)

3. The 'I deal in motors but havent done SR's before' seller: unlike Hondas, SR's require hard to find parts...like uncut harnesses, ignitor chips, coil packs, ecu's, etc. So they find a cheap place who promises them everything, take peoples money assuming its standard routine...and low and behold the engine has a cut harness, etc. An example of this would be MarksAccord.

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I'll pause this list to take a direct quote from a message board posting...god i love this:


Buyer Question: I'm interested, but have a couple questions. Are the engines compression tested or leakdown tested? Any garauntees? When you say S13 does that mean blacktop clips too? Is it possible you can get the drive train (drive shaft, lsd, half shafts) with the clip?

Seller Answer: I will find out everything. Good questions, I'm glad to see you know what your looking for.

SERIOUSLY...WHY THE **** IF YOU ARE SELLING MOTORS DONT YOU HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THIS ALREADY? BECAUSE YOU'VE NEVER SOLD MOTORS BEFORE!!!! Fall down....continuing...

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4. The 'give me your money dont worry next week no 3 days no next month' seller: Makes promises, sells things they dont have, possibly ends up not having enough money, screws everyone in pannick. ex. Lost Projects. In general sells things one cannot pay for upfront (A51PS13 on Zilvia.net)

5. The 'ebay' dealer: probably a cut harness, probably missing other parts, probably no warranty. Avoid it...too easy to scam. Also, why are all pictures the same for each motor they sell?


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another quote from a seller that has me

"I'm going to be importing SR20DET front clips. I cannot afford to front money on clips for customers. Therefore all clips must be paid for in full before delivery (deals can be made). Clips are relatively well priced. Price varies on the market availability at the time. Me and my partner are not shady about our clips. Everything that comes with the clip is yours. That includes the occasional aftermarket intake,downpipe, FMIC, BOV, clutches, flywheels, turbos, manifolds, etc. No extra charge on parts that come with the clips. My initial quote to you is what you pay. "

love it...all day

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6. The 'enthusiast & business man with experience': rare and hard to find. Knows whats good, knows whats not. Doesnt think his motors are worth gold, and tries to be fair with everyone. Replaces parts that are missing, and doesnt try to rape everyone. There is one of these on Zilva.net. I also believe a guy by the name of Steve Baker in Florida does well by folks. Another guy by the name of Andreas Miko in South Florida seems to do very well by people. Im sure there are more like this.

7. The 'well known shop that everyone loves that found a good deal on motors and is assraping their customers with $1000+ profit on each front clip'. Im not listing names...but this shop knows who they are...and should be ashamed of themselves making 50% profit on something you are buying from a fair public seller in the states. And to top it off...the well known shop never gets the motor and inspects it for you...it goes directly from the person they bought it from to your door.

8. The 'i am a person selling a swap in my garage'. First wonder why they are selling it, but this is a great idea if you are local to this person. Granted its not a business, but if u can compression test it, hear it run, pull the valve cover off, check the turbo, etc, you might end up doing very well by this. You probably wont get a warranty, but being able to inspect it yourself is a great option!



To everyone trying to sell SR motors....this is a small and shady market these days. Suppliers will promise you all kinds of things...chances are they have no idea what an ignitor chip is, etc. If a blacktop SR swap from a supplier is $1500....then it probably has a cut harness, no ECU, etc. If it was that cheap and simple dont you think everyone would buy from them? Also, with suppliers in Canada, Asia, Australia, etc...how can you get your money back?

PLEASE....only sell what you have in stock. Take pictures, post pictures, sell motors. If you cant afford to stock motors, then dont sell SR motors.


And if you're shopping for a swap, there is worlds to learn, and places to find motors by checking these sites:

www.240sx.org
www.FreshAlloy.com
www.Zilvia.net
www.240sxforums.com
www.club240.com
www.sr20deforum.com
www.b15sentra.net
www.wanganmidnight.com (actually there isnt a whole lot of SR stuff on this site but i run it )

etc, etc. Good luck in your hunt...may the gods make your stuffs faster.


Sincerly to all and annoyingly to wahnabe shops,

Garage Battle


p.s.
DO NOT BUY FROM: www.mnrracing.com M&R racing ripped off a friend of mine for the entire purchase price of an SR that has not been been delivered as promised....its been months and they will not return calls.

[doritaka]

If you pay up in front, you need to deal with reliable shop/person.

There are many shops actually don't have the swap kits in the hand. Shops don't stock motor but they tell you like we have motor right here.

If you pay up in front you should be able to get a great deal. they don't need to spend their $ to buy parts. they are just like a broker.

Milage
I'm from Japan(aplogize for rough English). There is noway you can find motor with 30K mile on it. You can check Yahoo JP or used car mags. most of Red top SRs are over 80K KM. If it's S15 it could be 20K 30K miles.

Age
If you buy the S14 motor how do you know if it's 94yr or 98yr motor? It's a big difference.

Quality
I see people are happy that the motor came with a fresh oil. You have to drain oil before you pack auto parts in a container. so it doesn't really matter. you don't know if the motor is off wrecked or running car.

I'm trying to import parts from Japan. and researched about this.

[mrmephistopheles]

This is good information, both to newbies, and to those new at SR shopping. I'm pinning this until further notice.

[AE86180SX]

Good topic Garage Battle. I'm in the same boat. This gets a BUMP

[Twinturbozs]

well said.

[PARAD0X]

i promise i'll sell my engine to you if my deal falls through, i'm not a shady guy nor am i wanting more than i paid

but bump for such good info

[clean]

so where do you suggest all the noobs get there motors from? where is the best price w/ the best reputation or fear of getting scammed? flashoptions is based out of Malaysia and brent over on 240sx.org got his clip from them w/ no problem, is there any other feedback bout them? they have a good price right now. i've been looking for my powerplant since i got my 240 in sept. i just dont wanna pay more than i have too. what do you suggest?

[elevator]

email Richard @
[email protected]

He and his dad export cars and parts (many SRs) all over the world.

[Driving-In-The-Rain]

IS that email address public....like can i write him and ask about prices and quality?

[elevator]

absolutely

[clean]

emailed them w/ what i wanted 2 weeks ago and iddnt get a responce. plus how much cheaper and reliable can they be compared to someone like heavythrottle? i emailed them saying i got info about them from a thread on zilvia net and your username, but i havent heard anything from them. o well. im waiting to see reviews from flashoptions and what not. i mentioned the username gladhatter from zilvia.net

[elevator]

Try this one...same outfit different location:
[email protected]
That guy won't know me, but I know the company. JAPANdirect USED MOTORS INC.

They ship cars and trucks to most places around the world. In the US they started out with just farm equipment, but as the kid got older and became a gear head they expanded to high performance car parts. I haven't seen the guy in a while. He and my son are friends. Actually my son is working in his old job. If I see him in the near future I'll get an update on his email. I got it off an old business card.

[justeno_heat]

I got my SR Front Clip through flashoptions.com.
I paid a little over $2000 for it back in November. And I got it in March. It was a long shipment and it only shipped to Philadelphia, PA but I got almost everything with it. I was only missing a pipe running from the turbo to the intercooler.