Do Not Buy From Zerolift.com!!!

[Beau]

This is the list of problems I had with my SR20DET for my 240SX, copy/pasted from another forum.

Problems I had with this motor:

1. Slightly dented oil pan. - Not a big deal.

2. White junk in every air passage way and even in the bell housing. - Looked like Arm & Hammer baking soda powder. There was so much of it that I didn't feel safe starting the motor without disassembling the intake and the pipes from the turbo and cleaning the junk out first.

3. Cracked ECU plug with some wires loose and several that were frayed or cut. - They claim it was perfect when it left their shop and that Yellow Freight is to blame. The big blue ECU plug was cracked completely in half and a corner of the crack was completely missing so 3-4 wires were loose. The CAS plug is cracked, one injector plug is cracked, and the ECU has a dent in it.

4. Turbo wouldn't spin at first. - With some fiddling and WD-40 it spins now, but does have a little shaft play that probably won't be a problem. The wastegate was frozen also.

5. Super HICAS power steering pump bracket that doesn't fit mine. - They didn't tell me about this and I didn't think to even ask about this potential problem. It's not so easy to find SR20 PS brackets in the US ya know...

6. Evidence of modifications and possibly racing. 7. Pretty burned up clutch and flywheel, rusting on flywheel. - 6 + 7 go together for the most part. The harness had some splicings into it with plugs that were not stock and had HKS spark plugs. I'm not that familiar with import stuff, but my friend identified them as either turbo timer wires or S-AFC wires. My machine shop guy questioned where I got the flywheel from and if it was a junkyard since it was in such bad condition. He managed to resurface it w/o issue.

8. General appearance of having sat around possibly outside for quite awhile. - It has a funny smell to it, crustyness all over it, that white junk was even in the bellhousing, road grime is caked on parts (not much though), pully's are a little rusted, the mechanical fan has broken blades and the fan clutch doesn't seem to move at all, no intake pipe or MAF (I knew about the MAF but he assured me that it wasn't a big deal to find one from an SOHC car that works, I'm still looking. Didn't know I was supposed to get an intake pipe until after I was putting things together). It just looks like a piece of junk in general, but my KA is even worse. The plugs look great and there is no evidence of oil usage or internal damage (metal fragments in the oil, noticable leaks).

He didn't want to take blame for anything wrong with the engine and says this is normal. Told me about a 15% restocking fee if I'm not happy with the engine and that I'm responsible for return shipping as well, which totals more than fixing the engine would cost.

Learn from my mistakes and NEVER EVER EVER buy a motor from anybody else than Enjuku or Heavy Throttle, somebody that has a bit more of a positive reputation. The extra $500 or so is well worth the money and saved headaches. He TOLD ME that they have had issues with Yellow Frieght multiple times, but didn't warn me to get insurance on the package before hand and they are still using them even though they know their engines are breaking in transit. If you live close enough by ZL to inspect the engine first before you pay for it, then you might still want to use them for obvious reasons. Enjuku does all of the prepwork to the motor before they send it which also speeds your work experience installing it. That includes cleaning it and making the engine presentable, they will not send you a piece of junk. I live locally to Enjuku and have done many many thousands of dollars of business with them and know the guys on a first name basis. I will never doubt them again and they will have my business from now on even though some things may cost slightly more. The peace of mind is worth it.

This post turned out pretty well, I think I'll be copy/pasting it to every forum on the net now. I hope I put them out of business. They made me confident about the product before my purchase and then on subsequent phone calls had an apprehensive sound to their voices as if they knew they screwed me. They didn't seem so confident anymore. With any luck I can help put them out of business. This install has been a nightmare and all of the problems originate from them or Yellow Freight.

[Checkered-Member]

wow dude that sucks...how much to fix the engine? (clean)

[skydragoness]

Some of those things you listed suck, but what can you expect really ...out of a used engine pulled out of a jdm vehicle that was most likely totaled and/or sitting in a junkyard? for who knows how long? SCC's first article about their sr20det swap detailed the completely fried clutch out of the SR they received. Its to be expected when s13/s14's are popular tuner cars in japan that some engines are going to show some beating. And although Enjuku and Heavythrottle have better condition engines, if i were to order an SR in general, i would still plan on having to recondition it. It could be much much worse though.

Sounds like Zerolift has some really crappy customer service/shipping methods. Good enough reason to complain IMO.

[Onizuka]

phase2motortrend is also a reliable source

[slw240sx]

zerolift is less then 45mins from my house a guy in my neighborhood is driving around in his car witha zerolift motors, hes happy as hell, but he also went down and hand picked it, they are selling motors fast and most are in very nice condition, they are also importing slylines and some other cars, they get most the buisness they do through the local scene so i doubt youll put a dent in sales, i dont blame you for complaining but try geting a new harness out of them, worth a shot.

not jyg customs has a motor sitting in my friends shop that well i think they dropped off the truck, im talkign literally , and then they got in a fight with the shop over it when they wanted to ship it back and get a return, and the trannys fubard too .

[TrueSlide]

Dude, your motor is from a japanesse junkyard. I dont understand why ppl constantly complain cause their SR is not in good condition, well you bought out of a junkyard. God knows what the previous owner did to it.

[89240sx]

I concur, you want a hand picked engine from a junkyard lol that's like hand picking the best turd out of the toilet IMO

[MasterMan]

that sucks man, there is a guy in miami that all the people around here go to, all the engines he sells are perfect and not a bad price eather.. u could of just drove down and picked it up