Okay NissanForums.. I have no idea what to do so Im basically bugging everyone I know for opinions. lol
I bought my car over 6 months ago, its a great little thing. I bought it for "As-is" for $2,100, 145.4K on it and had to put a new (stock) exhaust on it because the old one was rusted to hell. The only thing original for the exhaust is the catback and the headers. Failing emissions now, but it looks to be my cat... will get more to that later. I was never really looking to make this a preformance car, being my first and FWD. I did advance the timing and put a new intake on it, but the main reasons I did that for myself was better responce and it just runs better.
Little did I know till about a month later.. it has a miss-fire. It rarely happens and only around 2,500 RPMs.. but its already burnt my cat up to where its letting out too much HCs to pass emissions. Ive replaced the Coolent Temp Sensor (as it was throwing a code) and the Cyl 1 injector... still comes up. The only thing my mechanics can see it being is something serious like a sticking Valve.
I talked to my mechanic (I work at the same place so hes really closer then the average mechanic, he will do work for me outside of the job and I pay him directly) about fixing the issue. Short of taking off the head and looking for a problem.. there is nothing else he can do. And being without doing so he doesnt even know where to look (everything seems fine, runs fine, compression is even normal) that it could cost so much he said it may be better off putting in a new engine.
So now Im here with choices, none of which I can get a clear answer with myself.
A) Tell him to go ahead and take off the head and look for the problem, HOPE its something easy and quick and cheap and be done with it.
B) Buy a Junkyard engine (around $700, depends on supply and milage) and he swaps that into my car.
C) Buy a lower milage SR20 from places like JGY Customs, have it shipped and him install it.
D) Sell the car...
Option A.. no idea how much it will cost in the end, but he said in all, the time it will take and parts will make it about the same as a engine swap.
Option B and C.. he will do a full swap for me for $700. Im not 100% sure if hes willing to do a different engine then stock though. But... I really dont want a turbo anyway. Then I got the idea.. VE! Almost Everything is a dirrect bolt. All I would need is new headers, new ECU (about $500) and a bit of rewiring for the distributor and the selenoid and one additional 2-wire harness. Im sure he could do it easily but Im not sure if hes willing to do such a thing. Plus with the engine from JGY costing almost 2 grand Im looking at spending nearly $3,500 on it all together. Will the VE give me emissions close enough to the DE that they wont notice and I pass? Being Maryland in a 95, they dont scan it, they run it on a treadmill and collect the exhaust gasses.
Money being a issue.. I have $500 to my name after bills this month.. haha Current pay I have about $600 every month I can save. Current plains... well, emissions is on my ass about all this. Either I have a signed paper with paid reciept by the end of May to have the date pushed back or my car isnt legal. And Im trying to move so I wanted to save as much money as I could for that. It seems the only thing keeping my car from passing emissions is my Cat, but I dont want to replace that now just to have my engine burn it up again before I deal with the real problem.
Option D... I dont want to sell this car, I love it, but the cheapest road does seem that I sell it for "as-is" like it was to me, not telling them about the miss-fire and have some poor soul buy it. With everything being stock and pretty well maintained (new exhaust too...) it should sell for over $2,000. Then I could always buy a different car. Then again I may run into problems with that car.
What to do what to do what to do...
Oh, and yeah I figured this may go in B14 forum, but considering it mostly has to do with the engine.. and being the next one (if I went with that option) would be a VE, I threw it in here.
I think a VE would be a good option, you can get a very low mileage one for about $1200 (SR16VE) and I don't know about emissions but it should be fine.
The SR16VE will still be alot nicer than your DE and wont be that far behind an SR20VE; all you need to convert it to a SR20VE is a new crank and then it will have the SR16VE cams which kick ass in NA setups as it will raise the compression. If you aren't already, sign up at www.sr20forums.com and search for threads posted by Andreas Miko. He will also be the guy you want to talk to to get the engine.
__________________
Pics of my car- Red Dragun
Upgrades: New muffler, painted stuff, Pioneer HU, Pioneer Component Speakers, MTX Amp, 2 12" Kicker Comp Subs. Member's Rides Thread
I think a VE would be a good option, you can get a very low mileage one for about $1200 (SR16VE) and I don't know about emissions but it should be fine.
The SR16VE will still be alot nicer than your DE and wont be that far behind an SR20VE; all you need to convert it to a SR20VE is a new crank and then it will have the SR16VE cams which kick ass in NA setups as it will raise the compression. If you aren't already, sign up at www.sr20forums.com and search for threads posted by Andreas Miko. He will also be the guy you want to talk to to get the engine.
After thinking it over a bit and slapping myself in the face.. unless I can get the prices down I would be better off keeping a DE. The thought of a new engine completely flooded my mind and I forgot.. this is my get around car.
As for the SR16VE, I thought about that at first because it would be a lot cheaper. Its smaller, lighter, and even makes more power then the DE. But it would still all be the same issues as the SR20VET, correct? New ECU and so on would jump the price to about $2500.
I was even thinking "What about a JDM SR20, being $600, and turboing it later." but again, I dont want a turbo car that I use as a daily driver, I beat on my car bad enough as it is.
And.. know any shops (preferably East Coast) that I can ask about VEs so I can get some prices and such? The only decent site Ive come across is JGY, which is also on the west coast.
Okay NissanForums.. I have no idea what to do so Im basically bugging everyone I know for opinions. lol
I bought my car over 6 months ago, its a great little thing. I bought it for "As-is" for $2,100, 145.4K on it and had to put a new (stock) exhaust on it because the old one was rusted to hell. The only thing original for the exhaust is the catback and the headers. Failing emissions now, but it looks to be my cat... will get more to that later. I was never really looking to make this a preformance car, being my first and FWD. I did advance the timing and put a new intake on it, but the main reasons I did that for myself was better responce and it just runs better.
Little did I know till about a month later.. it has a miss-fire. It rarely happens and only around 2,500 RPMs.. but its already burnt my cat up to where its letting out too much HCs to pass emissions. Ive replaced the Coolent Temp Sensor (as it was throwing a code) and the Cyl 1 injector... still comes up. The only thing my mechanics can see it being is something serious like a sticking Valve.
I talked to my mechanic (I work at the same place so hes really closer then the average mechanic, he will do work for me outside of the job and I pay him directly) about fixing the issue. Short of taking off the head and looking for a problem.. there is nothing else he can do. And being without doing so he doesnt even know where to look (everything seems fine, runs fine, compression is even normal) that it could cost so much he said it may be better off putting in a new engine.
So now Im here with choices, none of which I can get a clear answer with myself.
A) Tell him to go ahead and take off the head and look for the problem, HOPE its something easy and quick and cheap and be done with it.
B) Buy a Junkyard engine (around $700, depends on supply and milage) and he swaps that into my car.
C) Buy a lower milage SR20 from places like JGY Customs, have it shipped and him install it.
D) Sell the car...
Option A.. no idea how much it will cost in the end, but he said in all, the time it will take and parts will make it about the same as a engine swap.
Option B and C.. he will do a full swap for me for $700. Im not 100% sure if hes willing to do a different engine then stock though. But... I really dont want a turbo anyway. Then I got the idea.. VE! Almost Everything is a dirrect bolt. All I would need is new headers, new ECU (about $500) and a bit of rewiring for the distributor and the selenoid and one additional 2-wire harness. Im sure he could do it easily but Im not sure if hes willing to do such a thing. Plus with the engine from JGY costing almost 2 grand Im looking at spending nearly $3,500 on it all together. Will the VE give me emissions close enough to the DE that they wont notice and I pass? Being Maryland in a 95, they dont scan it, they run it on a treadmill and collect the exhaust gasses.
Money being a issue.. I have $500 to my name after bills this month.. haha Current pay I have about $600 every month I can save. Current plains... well, emissions is on my ass about all this. Either I have a signed paper with paid reciept by the end of May to have the date pushed back or my car isnt legal. And Im trying to move so I wanted to save as much money as I could for that. It seems the only thing keeping my car from passing emissions is my Cat, but I dont want to replace that now just to have my engine burn it up again before I deal with the real problem.
Option D... I dont want to sell this car, I love it, but the cheapest road does seem that I sell it for "as-is" like it was to me, not telling them about the miss-fire and have some poor soul buy it. With everything being stock and pretty well maintained (new exhaust too...) it should sell for over $2,000. Then I could always buy a different car. Then again I may run into problems with that car.
What to do what to do what to do...
Oh, and yeah I figured this may go in B14 forum, but considering it mostly has to do with the engine.. and being the next one (if I went with that option) would be a VE, I threw it in here.
I am confused... The misfire that RARELY happens burnt your cat. That just doesn't make any sense to me.
If your car is running fine why are you or your mechanic even considering that a valve is sticking, you would have poor idle quality, in addition to being able to see this problem with a vaccuum gauge. Throwing money at it with reckless abondonment isn't gonna fix anything unless you really have your heart set on doing a motor swap anyways.
1. Are you sure your cat is bad. How do you know?
2. Set your timing right, thats probably gonna affect your emissions also.
3. If you really do have an HC problem (which would mean your car is obviously misfiring UNLESS accompanied by some CO) check ignition things.
4. What kind of gas you using.
I am confused... The misfire that RARELY happens burnt your cat. That just doesn't make any sense to me.
If your car is running fine why are you or your mechanic even considering that a valve is sticking, you would have poor idle quality, in addition to being able to see this problem with a vaccuum gauge. Throwing money at it with reckless abondonment isn't gonna fix anything unless you really have your heart set on doing a motor swap anyways.
1. Are you sure your cat is bad. How do you know?
2. Set your timing right, thats probably gonna affect your emissions also.
3. If you really do have an HC problem (which would mean your car is obviously misfiring UNLESS accompanied by some CO) check ignition things.
4. What kind of gas you using.
I agree, you should look into the EGR system before tearing off the head or paying anyone to do unnecessary work. Specifically, if the EGR valve moves when you push from underneath, or if it gets hung up.
I agree, you should look into the EGR system before tearing off the head or paying anyone to do unnecessary work. Specifically, if the EGR valve moves when you push from underneath, or if it gets hung up.
Did a full tuneup when I got the car. I have the sheet from the emissions somewhere.. its just HCs are through the roof and the rest is just a bit under boarderline. It happens "rarely" as in not everytime I drive the car, but it is atleast once a week and always the code that I was told (by this forum) that heats up and damages the catback.
93 octane, maybe I will set my timing back before going for emissions, I completely forgot about that.. but still, the HC levels are 3 times the allowed limit.
And yes, the idle is a bit rough, its moving around between 700 and 900, cleaned everything and it still does it, Ive just accepted that as part of the problem already. You can REALLY feel it around 2,000-2,500 RPMs if you keep a steady throttle it will start to shake a bit. Luckily highway speeds are closer to 3K. =p
Edit: And when I say feel it around those RPMs.. not when the cars sitting still, only while actually driving.
Get rid of the 93 octane and put in some 87. Your car is going to run worse and can even fail emissions on 93. You don't need it, your getting worse fuel economy, less power, and your paying more for it.
I'm still confused thought whats your problem that your car has an HC problem or that your car has an HC problem becasue your cat might be bad. I would like to know what the code your getting is also.
I will run the scanner after I see the light come on again.. and actually Im getting a lot better gas milage, as well as my car is running better, on 93 octane with the timing advanced.
I will talk to them about my EGR, but do you seriously think that would cause a missfire? Havent heard a single thing about that, also remember its only doing it on one Cylinder.
Edit: I was reading on the SR20 forums.. chose to do a quick search (Ive looked about the missfire when it first happen and got crap, even posted here) but I do see one person replaced his EGR valve (did that when I got the car), cleaned his whole EGR and BPT (what is BPT? haha) and so far (he hasnt updated since a little after he did it) it hasnt thrown a code. Tomorrow I will double check with my mechanic, he ended up cleaning everything from the IAC to the TB and so on when it started, so there is a good chance it isnt the EGR, but I will make sure before I go through an actuall engine swap. And to be 100% serious.. I dont feel bad spending nearly $3k on a completely new engine (mostly if its a VE) because it will end up being around 30K miles and I wont have to worry about this stuff for a Long time. The rest of my car (other then none mechanical parts here and there) is in great shape and will last if I keep good care of it.
Going to try and do that tomorrow and see what happens. Though I think I will still end up with a SR20VE in this car, though probably not for awhile if I can keep this engine last.
I should say thanks.. or something, I pushed a little more and found ONE (Yes ONE! Its a little annoying that no one else has brought this up) topic of the guy that replaced his BPT and cleaned his EGR system and it has not happen since, 6 months.
Going to try and do that tomorrow and see what happens. Though I think I will still end up with a SR20VE in this car, though probably not for awhile if I can keep this engine last.
I should say thanks.. or something, I pushed a little more and found ONE (Yes ONE! Its a little annoying that no one else has brought this up) topic of the guy that replaced his BPT and cleaned his EGR system and it has not happen since, 6 months.
You're welcome...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kindfiend
Char: Hesitation at 2500-2800 rpm is usually an EGR issue on older SR20's. This is not gospel, but its a good place to start.
... and www.sr20forum.com is much better for this kind of information.
I would like to know what the code your getting is also.
I kicked my timing back to 14 (came stock at 15) and running 87 octane. Car has no power. XD
Anyway, code came up earlier today when I was driving around to warm up my cat to run through emissions. The code on the scanner is "P0301 - Missfire Detected in Cyclinder 1." As said before, the check engine light blinks when it actually happens before it stays on steady... Im probably just going to buy a new cat and put it on for emissions then put the old one back on after. Im not going to spend $120 just for my engine to burn up a new one. As for the whole missfire... I will probably end up with a VE in a year or two, Im just going to make it pass emissions then let the engine kill itself, there is nothing else I can do.
Linear Mode
