swap confusion which one should I go with?

[Loomis112]

Ive been talking a lot of crap latley about how im gonna do a 5.3 swap or a rb25 swap or this or that I research the swaps hard and just cant find really what I wanna do

I have a redtop sr20det with low compression. Ive loved the engine my only conplaint is a little lack of power on the lower end

I haven't yet been able to hook the leak down tester to it to find out exactly whats wrong but theres no smoke or any burnt oil.. anyways

My budget and time is the issue

My first thought was to swap in another redtop go back to stock and work my way back up but thats a lot of money just to do the same thing over again. I mean for the end build amount I spend on it I could just swap the lm7 5.3


So like I said I wanted to do the 5.3 lm7 iron block. It just seems like its the best bang for buck out there when you calculate everything up. But then again its not really an engine you can swap in and start building on like any other engine and it's pretty spendy

Then I thought about an rb20 because of the cheapness and because well... skyline right? But why do that when I already have a 2.0 that has better aftermarket support and all


Then I thought about just getting a ka24de/e. A lot of people start out with this engine and everyone around my town is diehard ka>sr. I would definetly turbo it and possibly rebuild it.

The thing about the ka is that I could use a lot of parts off my sr (injectors, maf, etc) and save money plus I could also swap the engine in and add aftermarket parts as I go. And since its the factory engine putting it in the car would be a breeze.

But the downside to that is that I will have spent a ton rebuilding and turbocharging it.

No matter which way I look at it im gonna be spending a lot of money I just want to get the best for my money.

Like I said ive had fun with the sr depending on what this problem is I might keep it. But I have a feeling its almost toast. I'm not sure I wanna do the same thing over again.

If someone could give me some advice id be very happy confused and not sure what to do at all...

[silverarrow27]

Built High Comp N/A KA.

[Kingtal0n]

hmm. car alrdy have a swap, that runs. Why not drive it till it dies?

"low compression" describe the numbers across the board...
if its like
130
129
128
130

then you are in good shape for a 350rwhp sr20det for another 3-5 years.
"missing something down low" just means you are in the wrong gear, or the engine needs a clean up (tune up / clean up)

[Loomis112]

When we did the compression test (dry) I think I was like 110+ cylinders 1-3 and 95 on cylinder 4

[Kingtal0n]

When you did the oil test in cyl #4 did the compression rise significantly e.g. did it indicate ring failure?

If it isn't a ring it could be a valve, or headgasket, and valves are in the head, the head comes right off without much fuss.

[AzS13hatch]

First you should decide if you want to keep the sr in the car. It can be rebuilt easily and fairly cheap and you wouldnt have to change any of your current setup besides what needs fixed. If you are set against the sr, good or not you will end up swapping at some point so why waste money on the sr now just to get rid of it. As far as what to swap is gonna depend on what you wanna do with the car and how much you are really willing to spend. Something boosted you most likely already have a lot of stuff that can be used no matter the motor choice (intercooler and piping, guages, etc) but if you go v8 that stuff can be sold to help fund the other swap depending on condition of such parts. Personally I thought about building a ka and in the end decided against it because I had simply always dreamed of having a jz powered car, so why spend money twice. A lot of people go lsx or 1uz or vh because its easy to make good reliable power without boost and usually you can get parts all day locally if something breaks. Jz/rb you will more than likely have to order anything you need unless its some basic universal part.

[KendallH]

Put a 13b in it. NA with a holley carb.

[Loomis112]

First you should decide if you want to keep the sr in the car. It can be rebuilt easily and fairly cheap and you wouldnt have to change any of your current setup besides what needs fixed. If you are set against the sr, good or not you will end up swapping at some point so why waste money on the sr now just to get rid of it. As far as what to swap is gonna depend on what you wanna do with the car and how much you are really willing to spend. Something boosted you most likely already have a lot of stuff that can be used no matter the motor choice (intercooler and piping, guages, etc) but if you go v8 that stuff can be sold to help fund the other swap depending on condition of such parts. Personally I thought about building a ka and in the end decided against it because I had simply always dreamed of having a jz powered car, so why spend money twice. A lot of people go lsx or 1uz or vh because its easy to make good reliable power without boost and usually you can get parts all day locally if something breaks. Jz/rb you will more than likely have to order anything you need unless its some basic universal part.

I'm not against keeping the sr I mean its my dd and im fine with making around 350whp max. I was originally planning on getting 750cc's, a gtx2863r, water meth and tune it on nismotronic but then I found this out I still wouldnt mind doing that. I have researched rebuilding it and a lot of people do it themselves, ive never done anything like that before amd I dont really feel like spending money to break it due to my lack of experience.


I know it all depends on the shop but what do you think an oem rebuild would cost around??

[coupesallday!]

I did a sr rebuild myself in my garage and I spent around $2k but that's because I upgraded the bearings with acl race bearings, Pistons with cp forged Pistons and a stage 3 clutch..if you do rebuild it consider upgrading the bearings and Pistons atleast. I spent around $400 at the machine shop for a hone and cleaning of the head, resurface and hot tanked.

[Loomis112]

Hmm ill have to call around and see what shop owners can quote me cause like I said I have no space or knowledge on how to do that.

I know my family's mechanic auoted me like $1200 for a full ka rebuild back when I had my heart set on that, but he's an oem type mechanic and doesn't really deal with jdm swaps

[riguanyuso]

Jz/rb you will more than likely have to order anything you need unless its some basic universal part.http://goo.gl/NQIZBB

[Kingtal0n]

I'm not against keeping the sr I mean its my dd and im fine with making around 350whp max. I was originally planning on getting 750cc's, a gtx2863r, water meth and tune it on nismotronic but then I found this out I still wouldnt mind doing that. I have researched rebuilding it and a lot of people do it themselves, ive never done anything like that before amd I dont really feel like spending money to break it due to my lack of experience.


I know it all depends on the shop but what do you think an oem rebuild would cost around??



there is no one in the USA I would trust to build an sr20det. The only place that even has the machine shop capability that I am aware of deals specifically with sr20dert (i.e. they have a sr20 deck plate and some experience with the engine it appears) is mazworx.

A typical machine shop / mechanic can not be trusted to rebuilt an sr20det in my experience. Even machine shops with 30 years of experience make simple mistakes on these engines.

Your best bet is to either replace the long block (if it is bad) or swap a whole new/different engine.

As far as engines go, the sr20 is the only one that falls into place in a few hours, even as a novice, and you can be daily driving right away. The rest of the swaps will keep the car in the garage from 1-50 days depending on your budget and experience level. some never even finish. And the majority are done by novice "kids" who do half-assed wiring and half-assed plumbing, they rush rush rush to get it driving and the result is the average shit box 240sx that makes everybody else's non modified OEM vehicle so rare and expensive.

[Loomis112]

Well I'm not in a real rush and my current swap is pretty well done as far as plumbing and wiring.

Ive never done a full engine rebuild but I know how to work on the car and ive definetly had to correct some errors on this car.

I know what you mean though and thats sad mines definetly not a shit box tho haha im not a big fan of rushing things.


Theres a shop called BK industries where I live. They're like the inly performance shop really they claim to be pretty well off with sr20s ill probably end up asking them about it just to see what they say.