11,000 mile Heavy Throttle motorset review

[Onizuka]

About a year and a half ago I purchased a S13 Red top SR20DET from http://www.heavythrottle.com

I think its safe to say this motor has been good to me, taking me 60 miles a day to and from school and work. It has also endured a few drift days, multiple autocross days and alot of runs on the dyno. Its never broken down and always starts right up. Everything that came with the motor was in good working condition, the stock T25 is still pulling duty on a CA18DET down in florida as we speak. The injectors have gone on to serve a KA24DE.

All 11,000 miles have been spent with the motor breathing from a S15 T28, initially at 7 psi and now 10. The entire head and bottem end are 100% stock except for a metal head gasket and rocker arm stoppers. Trips to 7500rpm have never even caused even the slightest hickup. There is no oil or water leakage.

Heavy Throttle service has been, of course, superb.

Now the only things I didnt like: It didnt come with intake piping or the stock side mounted intercooler. The transmission also came with bad bearings (A sign the transmission either has alot of miles or was abused in its previous car, I never brought the issue up with HT), which are starting to really get bad after spending several hours running the car full out at a track this last weekend. At least the syncros are in decent shape and the gears and shifter are all good. At least a replacement gearbox can be had for under $100

So thats it, any questions, post them here

[codyace]

Great review of HT service and support (and product for that matter!!)

Threads like this make my choice of motorset importer/provider even easier!!

BTW: J-Spec, whereabouts in SE PA are you from? Im' from Stroudsburg (Pocono's area)

[nissanrcer240]

This isnt really on topic but if you dont mind me asking, is there really a noticible difference between the t25 and the t28 on stock boost or the same amount of boost

[Luke]

I'm going to be a copy-cat and give my brief review of my Blacktop from Heavy Throttle. I ordered my motor around May 2004. I received it a couple weeks later and finished the swap in June. The motor was swapped in with 123,000 miles on the dial. I currently have 146,000 (hard) daily driven miles since then with no major problems.

Initial Problems:- The CAS cover was cracked in half. Jeff sent me a perfect condition one, no questions asked except for me to send the old one back for repair.- I had a MAFS wiring problem that took weeks of troubleshooting to find. A ziptie on the main harness had severed 2 MAFS signal wires, no way someone would've found this visually without using a multimeter. - I had some mismatched belts and hoses (most likely due to a packing error) which they covered on my bill at the local Napa.- The original clutch, which looked like an exedy stage 2 3 puck, was toast. The outer edges of the clutch material had worn down to metal, most likely due to my on-going transmission oil leak (see below). This cut into the flywheel badly, and it cost me $75.00 to have it resurfaced. Jeff had given me credit for some of that to offset the cost.

First Impressions:The motor runs great since everything has been fine tuned back to FSM spec. A month after the swap was complete and I knew it was running well, i hooked up my boost controller and turned it to 14psi. I was very surprised with the power increase from that.

Also, in contrast with what JSpec mentioned, I did receive an OEM intake tube with my swap. The only problem was that I had found this after giving HT $99.00 for a new OEM intake tube. This sucked and Jeff had no problem with shipping the new one back and refunding my money in full.

The only thing that has plagued me since the swap is a small oil leak from the transmission. This is causing my clutch discs to get oil contamination and basically ruins the drivability of the clutch. This is a problem that i'm pretty much responsible for since i've been too lazy to pull the transmission off to fix it. The ACT pressure plate holds up well, but it is extremely annoying to drive like this. I believe the motor was originally like this based on the condition of the original clutch. (clutch material on the exedy stage 2 was worn down to metal, scoring the flywheel badly) I've now went through an ACT Street/Strip disc, and now my SPEC Stage 3 is crap. When I put the SPEC in, i replaced all gaskets and oil seals in there but somehow it manages to drop a single drop of gear oil every time i stop. oh well... it's getting fixed now that the weather is warm again.

I'm 100% happy with Heavy Throttle and I recommend them with every opportunity I get.
Modified by Luke at 3:02 PM 4/26/2005

[Onizuka]

Great review of HT service and support (and product for that matter!!)

Threads like this make my choice of motorset importer/provider even easier!!

BTW: J-Spec, whereabouts in SE PA are you from? Im' from Stroudsburg (Pocono's area)

Im in limerick (north of kind of prussia)

Welcome to nico by the way Check out the meets section, we have a thread going for local people.

[Onizuka]

This isnt really on topic but if you dont mind me asking, is there really a noticible difference between the t25 and the t28 on stock boost or the same amount of boost

My car dynoed at 210 hp at 7 psi on the stock sidemount with the T28, so im going to say yes

[travisn]

i have mixed feelings about heavy throttle. i am not bashing them but i have to share my experience. i bought the basic swap package and had them install it. the first thing that fried me is that i paid for my engine, but for some reason they gave my engine to someone else bc my car wasnt there at the moment. i think if this would have been avoided my problems would not exist. then it seemed like it took forever for the swap, i was told 3 weeks and it turned out to be 2 months, and even then it seemed like i was rushing them, like i wasnt a high priority. 7 grand is high on my priority list.

well my sr leaks oil every where. it starts very very bad when it gets like 50 degrees out. it feels slow. BUT it has been more than a year since i got my car and it has started every day.

it just sucks bc i spent almost 7g with them and every one makes fun of me for having the junk 240. now i understand that my car was in the shop when they were changing shops so maybe the employees they were possibly letting go didnt really care about my rusty 240sx, but this is new york, rust happens. i am just upset that i probably got one of the worse swaps from them.

but as for customer support they are the best ever. i can call and usually talk to jeff or doug within a few minutes if not right away. **props to doug for having a gf who loves cars** i remember when i pulled my valve cover do diagnose some leaks and i lost one of those chrome bolts, jeff just sent me one free. and another time i thought i need a fpr, and another time i snapped a valve cover stud, all free, s/h and all. i really appreciate that stuff.

and of course i found out that my turbo is bad this summer. its just one thing after another with my 240. so now i have a non rusty 240 to swap over to, and i will get my turbo rebuilt, and try to fix the oil leaks and pray for the best.

jeff, you are the man, dont hate me for telling ppl how much of a sh**y life i have. its not you guys, its just my luck, or lack there of... i am the only case of a swap from you with any complaints that i have heard of in more than a year. its just too mad it had to be me.

go to heavy throttle, its the only place i go to.