So I got a used JDM engine and I'm looking it over and I notice some things that have me concerned. However, being new to the swap process and still kinda noobish about the rotary, especially a turbo, I thought I'd post some pics and get some expert opinions on what I'm seeing. (PIC HEAVY)

First, the engine seems really rusty and corroded: like it's been sitting outside for a while. This may just be normal, but my S5, which sat for a year, while it had a lot of oxidation on the aluminum parts of the engine, it didn't rust out, and I live in Austin, which is pretty humid.




Next, as I'm eyeballing the turbo, I notice a lot of oil on the outside of it and through a hole where something should be (anybody tell me what's missing here?) I see a good bit of oil/dirt on the inside of the tube to the TMIC inlet (don't know the right term, sorry)




I can't see where this would be coming from externally, so I'm worried now that some seal inside the turbo is bad and leaking oil into the intake. I pulled the TMIC off and found that there was oil pooled in the inlet side.




Next I wanted to have a peek at the rotors and apex seals, more from curiosity that anything. Rear rotor looked fine but the front rotor has rusty water on the faces and apex seals. I may just be water paranoid but that's how the engine that this is a replacement for died: water in the front rotor (it wasn't rusty though). Here's a few pics of a couple of faces and seals. The last pic is what happened after I rotated the engine a few times - the rotor was spitting out water and it was collection on the plug hole threads.












And lastly, what is up with this flywheel? I expected clutch pressure plate like surface, like my NA flywheel has. I checked the FSM and they don't reference anything like this as far as I can tell.





If anybody who's done a JDM swap would be willing to chime in with how this engine compares to the one they got (at least WRT the issues listed) I'd be very interested.

Your thoughts are much appreciated.



-Mark

 

i pulled a turbo motor from a car that sat for 13 years thats in better shape lol. eaither thats a automatic flywheel or the pressure plate and clutch arent bolted on,

 

I wouldnt worry too much about the surface rust. A wire brush, some brakcleen, and some spraypaint will take care of that just fine.

The stock bov is broken off and missing from the turbo uppipe (I'm blanking on what its real name is right now) into the tmic. I recommend buying either an s4 uppipe and bov or something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-B...-/350337769726 which facilitates scaring pedestrians and baffling your friends.

Hopefully the moisture inside your engine is just condensation but I would be concerned about a bad coolant seal. Your are going to have to install the engine and plumb the coolant lines to find out for sure.

Your engine came from an automatic car, the good news is that you dont have to buy a counterweight if you decide to run an aftermarket flywheel. If you want to run a stock flywheel you will have to source one. I'd try finding someone to trade a stock N370 flywheel for your couterweight.

Hope this helps.

 

If it were condensation, wouldn't you expect to see it on both rotors?

As for the possible coolant leak, couldn't I block all the openings and just pressurize the system with air to see if it held pressure?

 

I would be very wary of this engine. Pull the turbo and exhaust manifold off and look in through the exhaust ports. Rust inside the engine is a very bad thing.

In your 2nd pic, the plastic nipple for the stock bypass valve/BOV broke off. You would need to replace the whole thing, and you'll probably need a bypass valve too. The S4 version of that tube is made of metal, unlike the easily broken S5 one.

The oil in the turbo and intercooler may be from a blown seal in the turbo, or it could have leaked in there from somewhere else. Imported engines get stacked up and partially disassembled/reassembled, so it's hard to say what came from where.

If the rust problem is as bad as it seems from your spark plug hole pictures, I would go about returning this engine asap. You can compression test it and pressure test the cooling system if you want additional ammo for your return phone call, but the internal rust would be more than enough for me.

 

looks like you just bought a paperweight. your best bet is to break it down, inspect all the parts carefully, and rebuild it with the usable parts.

 

I'll have a look in the exhaust ports this weekend.

I forgot to mention that the turbo inlet vanes/fins have a coating of oily dirt on them too. Sure seems like a blown turbo seal.


Suck. Avoiding a rebuild is why I decided to do the TII swap in the first place.

It's very disappointing and also very surprising that japan2la sent me what appears to be a piece of junk. He came so highly recommended that I felt the $3k was a safe bet. I'm surprised that he wasn't able to tell that this engine was, as you say, a paperweight.

Oh, well. I'll PM him and see about a refund. He does offer a 30 day warranty and I'd assume that an engine broken from the getgo would fall under that. Are rx7club.com vendors held to some kind of standard?

 

In other countries turbo cars also had the option of atx transmissions(aka the flywheel setup). Like others have said take the turbo and manifold off and get a better idea of the internal condition through the much bigger opening. A pressure test on the coolant system wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

My jspec was the same way when I bought it, had 30 psi front and 90 psi on the rear. Soon as I got it running Compression came up to 110 on both rotors, with no coolant leaks whatsoever.

 

What? Water on the rotors? Where would it come from if not a coolant leak? It still seems that if we are talking about condensation, then it'd be on both rotors, not one.

 

FYI:

Your claim that the engine and turbo are blown are unsubstantiated

There is nothing wrong with this engine or any of the other swap parts you purchased from me.

The engine PASSED a compression test and met all of my requirements. Can not pass a Compression test with a blown coolant seal..

You did not find any water in the rotor housing.. A miniscule amount of condensation does not mean there is a coolant seal faliure

The turbo is dry and had no signs of previous oil seal failure..

 

In his defense he simply posted questions and asked honest concerned questions. Others gave their opinions of what the pictures look like to them. If that lead him to be concerned about the condition of the engine, that's totally understandable.

I would recommend getting it installed asap so you can tell what's really going on with the engine, and possibly still be within your 30 days.

Just my opinion but that does not look like $3,000 worth of engine.
My $0.02

 

The $3000 included all the misc parts required to upgrade to a turbo: DS, tranny, half-shafts and diff. It was a little under $2000 for the engine.

Japan2la has agreed to take all the parts back and refund my money minus a small handling fee.

While I was really hoping to do the swap, this is a satisfactory resolution for me.

Thanks to all who chimed in with their opinions on the matter.

 

These engine are so easy to take apart and put back together. I don't understand why anyone would take a chance on a 20+ year old engine. Break them down, spec the parts, replace what's worn, and rebuild them! Why pay $2000 for a tired engine when you could have a rebuilt one to almost new condition for much less? I know some people are more mechanically inclined then others but the information is out there and there engine are really easy to service. I can't believe people still buy these old engines. There's rebuild videos, pictures, write-ups, the factory service manual, Haynes, etc..

 

I got my engine swap from HJot Imports, TX. It came with engine, transmission, driveshaft, dash wiring harness, engine harness (right hand drive so it was useless to me), battery harness, fuse panels (under hood, and dash), cruise control actuator, cruise control cpu, alarm ecu, N374 ecu, Sarad air intake, and a bunch of other stuff. All for under $1500.00 shipped.

I bought a rearend and half shafts for around $350.00 shipped.

I got an N370 ecu for $150.00. (not positive if I even needed it, I had some wires hooked up wrong causing limp mode in the N374 ecu).

My car compression tests 110psi on all 6 faces.

So for $2000.00 I swapped my car over, then recooped some of that from selling the good parts that I removed from my car. (I've recooped more than $650.00 so far and still have parts left)

That is why I say that doesn't look like a $3,000 engine.

To each his own I guess, but I don't think I would be happy with taking any loss from someone selling me anything that is obviously in less than ideal condition for better than ideal price.

 

How long ago was that?

I did hope to get some money for some of my used stuff. Glad to hear that it's possible.

 

I bought my engine over a year ago and finally got around to installing it a little over a month ago. I pumped some 10w30 oil in the spark plug holes and turned it over a few times while it was stored to help keep things lubricated.

The swap only took around 40 hrs. of work. I had a buddy help me get the rear diff up and in place, but rather then that I did the rest all by my lonesome. No prior experience, I just read, searched, read some more, and asked questions when I ran into things that baffled me.

 

Since my refund conversation seems to have stalled, I decided to see if it really was just condensation and I was being stupid, or if there was really was a bad coolant seal.

It's a bad coolant seal. A BAD one.

My S5 with 180K finally died due to a bad cooling channel wall collapsing, making starting impossible. When I disassembled it all I found was a little coolant in the housing. No rust at all and that failure had been steadily progressing for several months.

I have no idea what has to happen for this level of rust to accrue.



You can see a bunch of other pics here: https://www.rx7club.com/members/markusparkus-2684-albums-rusty-rotary-3392/

I'm really hoping that Japan2LA will see these and realize that I did indeed get a bad engine, handle it professionally and not leave me with a $3000 'paper weight'

Here's to hoping!!!

 

Ok, lets count... the amount of times I have already said, "send it back and I will give you a refund!"

 

Yes, but since you've said that there is nothing wrong with the motor, that I've made it all up in my head and that I'm sending it back for no reason, you want me to eat ALL the shipping charges and pay you a $150 restocking fee.

I really don't feel that I should have to eat almost $1000 to return what is obviously a bad motor.

 

I think that any further conversation between you and I about this issue needs to be kept in the feedback thread: https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...1#post10099388

 

The engine shouldn't have to be returned. To be fair to both sides you should pay the shipping charges. Once the engine is inspected and confirmed to be faulty and not abused you should be reimbursed in full. That takes integrity by the seller to admit bad product was sold.