danlovesfds

Guys.

I have just purchased my first fd that needs some work and I wanted to post a thought on JDM vs USDM rebuild and what you guys thought would work for just a daily driver..

At no point in time do I have the means to tune it out to be a high HP car.. I just want to enjoy the car the way it was made for as long as I can (until emissions regulations in ca changes or it becomes emissions exempt)..

I have been given estimates on rebuilds from 4-6.5k by mazda trix, lucky 7 racing and tri point...

I have sought an alternative solution in JDM.. but without a true history on the engine, I feel this is a gamble, given the range of mileage from 20k-60k on a engine that has statistically a 70k life span..

The only mods I want to do are life expanding mods.. Oil cooling, ignition, radiator upgrade, hard pipes, better coolant seals, and whatever can help me enjoy this car for as along as I can...

My needs are very simple and that is just to drive around less than 60 miles everyday and sometimes not at all as to currently I have another car which gets 42 mpg

will the jdm last or should I look for a usdm or do a rebuild on what I got..
Tri Point will do a diagnosis on my fd and hopefully the rebuild wont be too much but I don't want to cut corners or throw up bandaids.. The issues stems from over heating (which I know is fatal) with water back flushing out the expansion chamber..

Please help and please do not just come out and say rebuild or your pockets are going to hurt. I am looking for education and insight.

Thanks guys
-Daniel

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Best advice I can offer you is that if you modify the car to the point where the Stock ECU is being replaced,the BEST reliability Factor will be the TUNER..
Get a good tuner and that engine will last a decent age.

(My last engine was 8 years..)

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

No personal experience with those shops, but they're all well known and presumably will do a decent job. Buying a used engine is always a crap-shoot, especially "JDM". Besides, you're in California and I'm not certain of the differences between an overseas engine and your's in terms of things like EGR and other emissions relate components. I know ECUs and engine harnesses are different.

Properly done, with good maintenance and a responsible adult driver I think you're selling the rebuild short. If you remain relatively stock, the stock ignition is fine. Anything with cooling that doesn't hurt a visual inspection is good. But some other engine reliability things that come to mind during a rebuild are replacing the Fuel Pulsation Dampner (FPD); coil harness; new fuel lines, new or aftermarket stainless OMP lines; fuel filter and every coolant hose, especially turbo coolant hoses.
Other things to consider IMO for cooling is a simple boost-activated Water Injection (WI) system. Being boost activated isn't sophisticated, but it makes it reliable and inexpensive. And if you search under my name in the AI section, you can find threads with pictures and component location that makes it almost invisible. And along with cooling, WI give you other benefits like knock and carbon control. The latter allows you pre-mix a bit along with the working OMP for additional hard seal to housing lubrication.... i.e. longer life and not worry about carbon build up. I've been beta testing this theory for about 40k miles on my rebuild.
To sum up, NO on JDM engine, YES on rebuild. A rebuild is going to cost significantly more, but it gives you a chance to do some of the above, along with some other things those shops might suggest for longevity. Besides, sounds like you bought the car cheap and knowing it had issues. Now it's 'crunch time'.
My .02.

danlovesfds

Thank you guys for the feedback. I wanted to know what you guys thought before I hear from these different shops.. some say its ok on jdm and that they have great connections for 100 psi per rotor and really low miles on a great conditions but without papers its really hard. I would like to trust them but at the end of the day im still skeptical. Im taking my fd to some shops for diagnosis and I will see what they say. I think I will go rebuild because I want longevity, I don't want something to will crap out on me 6 months from now.

I appreciate the passed on knowledge!

James1991

I just bought a motor from Japan it turned out to be perfectly good looks like low km all but I'm rebuilding anyways you want to stay safe and just do a rebuild it's worth it in the long run and not that expensive or just take apart your motor and rebuild it as long as your housings and rotors are in good shape. The benefit of what I did was now I have a spare transmission spare housings spare rotors and a ton of other stuff. My cost to my door was only 1750

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

If you saw the internals of a JDM engine that I got..Woah..
Nails from Noah's ARK were in better shape.
had more Rust than Joan River's Chastity belt...(miss ya Joan,ya made me laugh.).

I bought an Engine from a Guy on Forum when I first started.That engine went through Hell and survived almost eight years.He had rebuilt it and it was a former Jdm engine.Stupid **** made it let go.(cool air,bad tune).But it didn't Kick a seal,it compressed it.so my turbo survived.Thank God.
Even if the Jdm's show good compression as James said,it is always good to check tolerances,redo the soft seals and see what you have.
It's the Little things that turn BIG in a hurry with these engines.If you know what you have then you can rest knowing that the engine will be a runner.

James1991

Take the time, do it right and only do it once, or rush it, waste time and money and hate your life haha. I'll be making a build thread shortly as soon as I have anough posts haha. Just remember if you don't want to do it once imagine doing it than having to redo it again. Double cost and aggravation.

DaltonIsRad

I'd for sure say rebuild you don't want to get stuck with a messed up motor that has no warranty

yammo7013

I got my jdm engine from japan2la when he was on here now the engine ran awesome. but if I had to redo it over again I would go for a rebuild just because youre cleaning everything and replacing everything in the engine with the engine out. I didn't do that I just swapped it in now im getting fuel injectors serviced,removing emissions etc. if I had a rebuild I would know how many miles are on it and know that everything on the engine is new and I can get to anything with the engine out.