serious sr20det help

[1 QWK SR]

I also posted this in the nissan technical forum, sorry about the repost, but i wasn't sure where it should be posted

I hope you guys can help me.... sorry in advance about the long post...

I've got a 95 240sx with an s13 redtop motor. This is the second s13 motor that has been in the car as the first one took a dump. Cylinder #1 has basically no compression so essentially i have been told i have 2 choices...

1. buy another longblock and swap them out and hope the motor doesn't blow up again

2. rebuild the existing block, preferably use better parts, and make the motor stronger.

Here's the issue, i have not done any of the work on the car myself, and i am not as enginge saavy as i would like to be.. I have contacted 3 SR20DET "specialist" shops and here's what i came up with... None of them can obtain just a longblock and they suggest i buy one on ebay and they will do the work for me total cost would run about $2,000 including the motor (i've found them available for about $900-1200, but i REALLY don't trust buying one from ebay.

As far as the rebuild goes, the cheapest price i got was about $4,000. I don't want to put that kind of money into this car because i have already spent well over $12,000 worth of repair and parts on this car in the past 3-4 years with all the issues i have had.

Every shop i talk to keeps saying i should pull the motor myself and that would save me a bunch of money..

I guess my question is... How hard is it really to pull the motor and do the rebuild myself? Does anyone know of step by step instructions on pulling the motor and a rebuild?

The car has been sitting in my driveway for just over a year now, and i'd really like to get it running again. It is so much fun to drive! I don't mind spending about $2,000 to get it fixed, but that's my absolute limit.

i REALLY appreciate any help i can get

[CMG]

As far as I know the SR swap is the easiest swap to do, barring a honda or something maybe. If you want to spend $2000, you could build that motor nice if you were doing the work yourself. Otherwise, I would recommend just buying a replacement motor with low miles and swapping it out. Even if you paid a shop it shouldn't cost more than $2000 total, and you could sell the old stuff to make a little money back.

[luv2spedup]

As far as I know the SR swap is the easiest swap to do, barring a honda or something maybe. If you want to spend $2000, you could build that motor nice if you were doing the work yourself. Otherwise, I would recommend just buying a replacement motor with low miles and swapping it out. Even if you paid a shop it shouldn't cost more than $2000 total, and you could sell the old stuff to make a little money back.

+1 you can part the motor out and get roughly 7 to 8 hundred out of it

[1 QWK SR]

I agree... I have been quoted under $2000 to do the longblock swap, but I can't find a longblock anywhere. Every shop i have contacted, event the ones i have done business with before only wants to sell me a full swap, and that's like $1000 more. I have no use for another transmission, ecu, harness etc.. nor do i have room to store them...

[garagelu]

I have a good place to get redtop long blocks. Its jrautoparts.com. I ordered a long block from him a couple months ago and very good results. I actaully just ordered another one for a friend.

From what I have seen, all the long blocks he sells are automatic engines which is awesome. Better condition engine that havent been abused. All you have to do is swap the auto pilot bushing to a manual pilot.

Buying a long block is so much more cost effective than doing a rebuild. I bought a long block for 850 plus 150 dollars shipping. It came with injectors, coil packs, ac compressor and alternator. I sold all this and made about 200 dollars or more. Then I sold my blown complete long block for 500 iirc. So really you are only spending about 300 dollars on a new engine.

[1 QWK SR]

Thanks,

I can definately give him a shot and see what he's got on hand. My car has alot of modified parts on it (stand alone ECU, new turbo, special coil packs and igniter, etc..) would you recommend trying to do it myself so i can save the labor cost? The cheapest labor quote i got was aroung $1,000.

[garagelu]

well the parts that you list like standalone ecu, turbo, coil packs, etc has nothing to do with it. Its just a matter of taking the good condition stuff from your old engine and swapping it onto your new engine. You dont even need to touch the ecu and stuff like turbo,coil packs, ignitor you just swap over to the new engine.

This is a brief summery of what I did when I had to replace my long block. First pull your old engine with transmission out. Take the transmission, flywheel, clutch off. Then swap over stuff from your old engine to your new engine. I had some aftermarket stuff like bigger turbo, arp studs, apexi gasket and injectors. Then just swap over stuff like throttle body, motor mounts, coil packs, intake manifold, alternator, etc depending on which one is in better condition. Then bolt the clutch and transmission back on and its pretty much ready to go back into the bay.

If you havent done it before, you should get someone to help you. But swapping long blocks is amateur stuff. Anybody should be able to do it. Just make sure you remember to swap pilot bushings if you get an automatic engine.