I have an 89 S13 with a nearly perfect body. It has a S13 JDM black top SR20 that now has rod knock. I have put 30,000 miles on it in 3 years and a month. I hate to swap it again, not knowing why my first one went bad, especially since this motor supposedly had only 79,000km on it and is supposedly so strong. Rebuild is quoted at over $2000 plus. I cannot scrap this clean (title and all) car but I cannot afford a fully built and stroked (the shop's recomendation) engine, besides they say the block and crank are no good with the knock it has. So build/stroke it, stock re-build it, swap it again (I am not able to find motor only, only full swaps), or set it on fire?
it's not that hard to buy just a motor. most importing places will be able to find a car with a bad tranny. i'd reccomend buying another motor, dropping it in, and tearing your old one apart. I'm not so sure that the rod knock means the entire motor is trashed, you could be lucky, and get away with a new crank, and rods. if you do that, go ahead and get forged parts, and go to town.
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93 Nissan Sentra SE 2 door - Stock, slow, but it has air! purchased 9/13/07
88 Honda Civic DX Hatchback - MPFI conversion, Si interior
85 BMW 325e Coupe w/ 88 I motor swap - sold 2/24/07
93 Sentra XE 4 door - wrecked 7/29/06 totalled.
90 240SX Fastback - sold 7/15/05
i drove it for 3 years. i blew the rings on cylinder no 2. it wasnt blown to the point that you couldnt drive the car. it was just blowing a whole lot of blueish smoke. and i did a cylinder leak down test. and cyl #2 was at 20% wich is too much leak for da piston. so i rebuilt it and i only paid 900 bucks for my motor assembly and that includes hot tanking the block and balancing the motor when assembled. obviously that labor cost for the engine build. i tore down the engine my self and supplied the parts.
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id buy a motor and swap it. use the other motor to get more familiar with the internals and stuff. so when you do wanna do internals youll know the motor like spelling your name
__________________ Quote of the Day From Our Shop "Quick, ill wiggle it while you tug on it"
I think that is a good idea. I'll tear down my own block and if its ok rebuild it with rods and pistons, stroked a little of course. If not I'll have some aluminum for the scrap man, and a better idea of what the internals are and maybe what happened.
Hey man good luck with it, I would suggest a good rebuild, because when you want more Horse power people have to rebuild the engine to with stand the boost and compression. So once rebuilt with forged internals.
1 - Blue-printing is basically using the FSM engine "service data and specifications" section for taking measurements of your motor and correcting the areas which are out of spec.
Here's an example:
cylinder block height: The block deck to crankshaft center line spec should be the same from the front to back of block. If it's beyond spec, the block may be warped or someone milled the deck improperly.
2 - Magnefluxing is using a magnetized metallic solution on iron or steel parts under a black light to look for cracks.
3 - Shotpeening is a machine process that uses very fine metal shot that's blasted against a part to be treated. This microforges the surface of the part making it stronger and harder while leaving the interior soft and ductile. This step can improve the fatigue strength of a part by over 100%.
Or bore out the engine and get it sleeved or something like that I do not have an SR but this is what I have herd, I have never rebuilt an engine but this information is what I got from others on this forum
it's not that hard to buy just a motor. most importing places will be able to find a car with a bad tranny. i'd reccomend buying another motor, dropping it in, and tearing your old one apart. I'm not so sure that the rod knock means the entire motor is trashed, you could be lucky, and get away with a new crank, and rods. if you do that, go ahead and get forged parts, and go to town.
what Dustin said... major probs can be fixed for somewhat cheap if ya knwo what your doin with cranks/blocks... unless you got effed up cylinder head journals.... or heat warping... but a metal part is a metal part.. as long as it's got no cracks/warping which can be fixed, the thing you gotta worry bout is if a bearing spun, then you've got some serious welding and boring to do. depends on if you got the right tools to break it all down and get it to a machine shop .....taking along with you the right specs from the FSM.
ANYONE KNOW A GOOD RESOURCE ON GOOD USED CRANKS???
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dblclutchn lik a mofo, save me that clutch
Last edited by OchnofConcrete : Jan 17th, 2008 at 02:45 PM.
too bad it was the original motor working at 230,000... hmm?
thanx but i know how to rebuild a motor the right way.
and i know how to halfass it so you can have a car to drive for half a year til you can do it the right way.
depends on your situation... sometime's need over powers want.
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dblclutchn lik a mofo, save me that clutch
I think that is a good idea. I'll tear down my own block and if its ok rebuild it with rods and pistons, stroked a little of course. If not I'll have some aluminum for the scrap man, and a better idea of what the internals are and maybe what happened.
Rebuilding the motor properly is the most cost effective way to go. However I wouldn't recommend stroking the crank assembly because it's very expensive. Stroking gives you more low speed torque but cuts down high RPMs.
There's a good chance the motor had an oil starvation situation. Make sure the oil pan is not dented; that's where most problems occur.
i've always wondered about that..
how do you reset your rpm gauge so you know when you need to back it off.... and that's not even the hard part...
resetting the ECU's rpm codes and it knowing when to govern after you do bore modifications whether it be overboring, stroke, compression... valves...
i'm sure there's formula's and sh!t, but i doubt that most hotrodders had any clue as to that... yet another year to the School of Hard Knocks.
most just modded until the engine blew... but those with a smart buddy or a dad to help knew the thresholds of the engines by heart...
now wi/ EFI engines it's like you have to buy an aftermarket ECU so you don't waste all that money on a blownup engine, but when you start getting into your own set ups... i mean hell... you're talkin about learnin some serious stuff for software tuning.
someone needs to write a book.. lol, the other ones i've read did pretty good.
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dblclutchn lik a mofo, save me that clutch
Quote of the Day From Our Shop "Quick, ill wiggle it while you tug on it"
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