JDM engines 30 k question
 

there has always been all this talk here in the us that cars in japan have no emmissions so when your motor reaches 30,000 miles you have to get a new one.
i dont beleve this is true. can anyone verify this?

thanks

hmmm, my motor has 128k and runs like a champ

It is all BS. But most people do not keep a car over 100,000 Kilometers. There is no law stating 30k rebuild or sell. If your emissions are cleand and the engine does not have any leaks you are good to go.

If you buy a jdm engine and the seller tells you that, I suggest you buy somewhere else.

I use to sell some engines under that assumption but later found out the truth and required more proof of actual mileage as well as a compression test ofcourse.

I think the average person puts on 6,000 kilo's in a year on their cars in japan and most people only keep their cars for about 5 years before getting a new one. I think that is where the 30,000 kilo figure came from.

So do these engines actually have high miles? I am begining my search for a jspec TII engine or front clip but Im kind of weary of the claims made about actual miles and they're compresion test. I checked out www.tigerjapanese.com and some other ones.

they do not have high mileage. In the US we consider a car with over 100,000 miles or 150,000 miles to be a high mileage engine. I would say that the average JDM engine with fair to good compression has about 65 to 75,000 miles. They are a good motor if you are not planning on throwing a lot of boost at them. They should be good for about .8-.9 bar for about 1 to 2 years but then you will need to get another one. I am not saying they can't last. I have had plenty last me a long time, the shortest period I have had one last me was about 10 months and that one blew from my own stupidity. So don't be afraid of them but also don't think you can bolt on a larger turbo with some fuel and ecu mods and pump 350hp out of it for very long.

Even at that milage I am still well below my milage now with my n/a. I would be happy with a turbo engine with less miles and more power, when it blows then I can modify it I guess. Thanks :)

If you dont have the money to build a turbo II motor now and want the J-spec swap because it is more cost effective then I advise you to not wait until you blow the motor because that will 9 times out of ten take you back to square one with a junk motor that has few parts that can be re-used. Rebuild and modify before you blow the motor.
Anyhow enjoy the turbo motor and the swap!

not turbo related but people in japan will rarely buy a car with over 100,000kms on it and the prices reflect this
i just bought a very very good condition 1992mitsi GTO/3000GT/stealth for a very low sum as it was approaching 100,000kms
it's got all the service records with it and they show the exhaust CO2 and hydrocarbon records going back for quite a few years
every 2 year test you could see the numbers rise the same amount and so plot a fair curve of what they were going to be in the future
if the rate of increase stays the same the car is probably good for another 100,000kms before it gets close to the limit, (of course by then they will have lowered the limit so who knows)

a big reason people hand their cars to the wreckers at that milegae is because the cam belt service is due on most cars and or it needs a new muffler
servicing it expensive here as wage rates are so high and people pretty much use factory parts, so a cam belt change done properly, (GTO also gets waterpump, cam belt tensioner pulley, idler pulley, thermostat, power steering belt and alt. belt)

cost for such a service and muffer system can easily be the same as the value of the car

today i also took my 15 year old, 110,000mls turbo-diesel van in for it's 2 year check, i knew that the muffler would fail but before i replaced it wanted to know if it would get also get flagged for emissions as it's getting pretty smokey

they stuck up a probe up the remains of the exhaust, revved hell out of it and clouds of black smoke came out. i thought they would then fail it for emissions and i would have to scrap the van but they passed

so whatever anyone tells you about japanese emission laws being tighter than most countries is crap. they are probably less stringent than the usa and certainly many european countries

the cars do get scrapped but not because they fail emissions, usually just because people are sick of them and want a new

eric e

it can fart weasels at most spots as long as you have a stock cat or cat with paperwork installed....and an air pump

Any laws against servicing it yourself? Would I be able to make more money as a mechanic in Japan then in the United States? Wouls I also have to work on less junk? if so ,how hard would it be to get my tools into the country?

not against servicing it yourself but probably laws about charging people for your work....

eric e

You're saying I need certain certifications and insurance before I can work on other people's cars for a living?