Need to use someone's garage for a few days?
 

Alright, I'll be coming home on the 3rd or 4th of May and I'm planning on dropping a new motor into my RS. The problem is I have no where to do the work. Can someone lend me the use of a garage and possibly a hand with the swap? Shouldn't take more than a day or two, unless I decide to do new cams too.

Well, I can't help you with the garage, but I can give you a hand, and I have a setof cams collecting dust in a box...

aftermarket?

Cobb mild.

price?

Two car garage available in Truckee and I'll be on vacation so can help. Possible engine lift also available from neighboor.

That's really far from my house in Carson, but I'll take you up on that if no one closer can help. Thanks a bunch!

Please tell me you are swapping a turbo motor into it?

negative

WHAT?! I thought you'd say that... what's going in there then?

New and improved, 200+ hp EJ251.

Neato?

Of course it is. If I had the money and time I would do cams and take it to I-Speed to be tuned while I was at it.

So this motor is out of a...06 2.5i? Just a guess.

I haven't acquired the motor yet, either a JDM lump from Gruppe-S or get a used shortblock from the wreckers.

So then it has a possibility of being turbo'd?

No.

Aw...

If the RS gets a turbo it will be in the form of a drivetrain swap, which is not happening anytime soon.

If you guys do the swap in truckee, (or carson) I'de Love to help. (never seen a motor swap in action) but i don't know much about cars so it will mostly just be heavy lifting, tool gophering, and such. though i am capable of undoing bolts and other easy tasks :)

Don't bitch out! I've got a motor for you and everything!

No you have a pile of parts that almost approximate a motor, some of which probably won't even be here by the time I need them. ;)

Well if all else fails I have a garage.

You're correct, the timing probably wouldn't work out... but I'd attempt to have a complete long block assembled for you.

Ya I really don't have enough time to pull off a WRX swap, especially without everything being right there for me. Not to mention it's way more money that I care to spend. I'm no debt racer like you. :p

So it looks like I'm getting a complete JDM motor from Gruppe-S. I'll try to do the swap the weekend of May 6th. Think you will be around for me to use your garage Joeyy?

Dude awesome, which version? I wanna watch...

SOHC EJ25 out of a 2.5i

Radness, 173 hp would be nice to have, along with the extra torque.

I'll have more than that, not like it will be stock. ;)

Oooo, intriguing.

Eh just bolt ons, but I think I will top 200hp. Should be a fun car.

Alright, well I'm not going to be wiring up the AVCS if the motor really has it, so I won't be hitting 173hp stock.

It's not AVCS, it's variable lift like Vtec. You could probably wire it up with a simple switch to control the oil pressure valve that runs it.

Dude, that's the normally aspirated version of a MBC. Probably not the best idea to change the cam-timing w/o tuning the car for it... not that it would blow up the motor or anything, but I doubt you'd get much benefit from having a "manual VTEC".

No, it's not the "Na version of an MBC." He was about to buy my Cobb cams before we figured out they wouldn't work. It would be like having a switch between the two cam profiles. There wouldn't be any ECU tuning for the cobb cams, but I don't hear anybody screaming at RS owners about that. It's not dangerous, and it could end up necessary depending on which cam is the default "off" position. He'd lose a lot of low end if he's got his "vtec" on all the time. No, it's not great, but given that his options are no vtec, and manual vtec, it wouldn't hurt to attempt it.

So what do you guys think? New motor from Gruppe-S for a g. No one there seems to know exactly what it is, just a SOHC EJ25 out of a JDM 2.5i. OR a shortblock from the yard in sacramento (comes with a start up warranty) with a set of Cobb mild cams also about a g.

I'd go with the known quantity.... coming from my own experiences with trying wierd stuff, unless you know someone that's done the JDM swap before and knows all the gotchas, I'd just replace the shortblock, 'cause the swap is going to be more expensive.

Though replacing the shortblock seems like an awful lot more labor 'cause the motor has to come apart.

Gruppe-S told me it will drop in, but frankly they seem like they have no idea what they are talking about. They haven't been real friendly or helpful either.

Gruppe-S has a lot of stikes against them. Definitely a vote for the shortblock replacement here, but I'm biased. ;)

I dunno everyone always says how great Gruppe-S is but I've been underwhelmed to say the least whenever I deal with them. And yes you are biased Kevin.

Gruppe-S has been nothing short of spectacular from my perspective. MikeW's bent over backwards so far and so many times for me while solving all the craziness with my swap that I hear the Russian traveling circus is after him for a contortionist job.

JC, if you're talking w/ the fellas on the parts side of Gruppe-S it can be hit or miss depending on who you talk to, but on the tuning side of things, Gruppe-S is top-notch IMO.

I dunno Mark has always been friendly and trys to be helpful but doesn't seem to know terribly much. There seems to be a large disconnect between him and the rest of the shop. A few weeks ago he told me to call in to schedule an appointment for them to rebuild my motor. When I called I spoke with Mike. First he told me to call I-Speed (who doesn't rebuild motors period FYI) because they work on N/A motors more than Gruppe-S. I asked if he could do it anyway and he said yes, but refused to let me make an appointment because he said I should just put in one of their JDM motors instead of rebuilding mine. Despite the fact that I told him I didn't really want to do it because I wanted to throw in some cams, he insisted it was a better way to go. Of course they didn't have any JDM motors at the time, but he thought they were going to be in their next shipment and told me he would call me when they opened the container. I told him I wanted to make an appointment anyway because they would be doing the work regardless and he again refused and told me to just wait 'til later when he called me. Of course no one called me, so I PMed them after they posted them on NASIOC asking for details on the motor since I was concerned that it wouldn't just drop in. Mark just ignored my questions and sent me a link to the post. Then after I pointed out that the post said it wasn't a picture of the actual motor, Geoff sent me actual pics but still never answered my questions. That was the point I got sick of running around in circles with them and decide to just pick up a SB from the junkyard and do it myself. Then I found out I only had about a week and a half off from school, so I figured I'd just drop in the complete motor to save time. And so I find myself in my present situation. Oh and Mark was supposed to call me today so I could put a deposit on the motor, still nothing.

Ya Ya garage still available...and I'll be home. I'll aske neighbor about engine lift tonight if you think it will help.

Ya that would be cool, thanks man!

Alright I bought a complete 2000 RS motor from the guys at ECS. It should arrive at my house in NV by the end of the week. :)

My motor arrived today. Sitting in the back of the Tundra awaiting my arrival. :)

Sweetness.

damn JC if you wait like 3 weeks you could have my fully assembled wrx motor with turbo and everything....haha....good luck with that swap i got a 3 car garage, but no tools really and no motor crane either.
ryan

I ain't putting no rice WRX motor in my car. :p What you are getting?