Personal recommendation

[fact5racer]

For what its worth, from personal experience I would highly recommend staying as far away from the early model JDM motors. I have over $8,800 into mine to finally discover the bearings are bad. So now I am removing my bad motor, all of my custom made JDM wiring harness and upgrading to a tuneable series 7 JDM motor. Early (series 5-6 have basically Russian Roulette computers, that it costs $300 for the license to tune them), and they only last between 1-3 re-flashes before they go south. I was hoping to build my 818R for just under 20K and it looks like I am going to have doubled that before I get it finished.

NOTE: This has NOTHING to do with the quality of the Factory Five 818 kit!, this is a mistake that I made going with the JDM motor instead of sticking with my 2002 donor motor., and I just want others who see these motors for cheap money and think, like I did, that it's the way to go.

[Flamshackle]

JDM motors are great. Not sure which year engine you are talking about? Pre 2003?

[C.Plavan]

Have you tracked it yet? How did you find out?

[fact5racer]

JDM motors are great. Not sure which year engine you are talking about? Pre 2003?


yes, its a 99, replacing it with a post 2003 like yours.

[fact5racer]

Have you tracked it yet? How did you find out?

No! It didn't even run long enough to drive it across the parking lot to the fFR open house .
Discovered the noise on the dyno on it's initial startup

[C.Plavan]

No! It didn't even run long enough to drive it across the parking lot to the fFR open house .
Discovered the noise on the dyno on it's initial startup

That sucks. Sorry to hear that.

[Aero STI]

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you had with this old motor. I've done a handful of JDM swaps. V7, V8, or V9 EJ207s have nearly identical wiring to the EJ205 found in 2002 to 2005 USDM WRXs. You add a few wires for the intake AVCS. V10 JDM motors use 32 bit ecus and things get interesting. The V7 or newer EJ207 motors are incredibly reliable. You want to look out for tsunami motors, check for any signs of water intrusion immediately, but they're awesome.

[shinn497]

How would you compare V8 vs v9/10

And do the newer versions still have twinscroll and that avsc enabled 8250 rev limit?

[redfogo]

Why beashing all JDM motors based on one motor. Any more details on what you think went wrong? Some importers are better then others. My importer sent me videos of the engine running in the car and provided me with all proof to support that that was the motor I was getting.

[fact5racer]

Why beashing all JDM motors based on one motor. Any more details on what you think went wrong? Some importers are better then others. My importer sent me videos of the engine running in the car and provided me with all proof to support that that was the motor I was getting.

What I am saying is that even if the bearings in my motor was fine, there are still issues with the earlier versions that makes it much better and IMHO wiser to go with the later versions (7+). The fact that the earlier versions need a very specialized harness that only works with the earlier versions, the fact that the computers have a 30% failure rating when reflashing (which also costs $300 for licensing) makes it much smarter to spend just a little more and get no lower than a version 7 JDM motor.
Like I am trying to point out, I wish I had been better informed of the different versions and their disadvantages and advantages so i would have made a better decision in the beginning.

[redfogo]

Ahhh okay I see what your saying I would agree though any version 7 and up will be your best bet those are the most "plug and play" for US cars.

[Flamshackle]

yes, its a 99, replacing it with a post 2003 like yours.

yea the 207's are the way. sorry to hear about your issues.

Your car looks so cool in that livery.

[metalmaker12]

The ej207 JDM engines are the very best and easily swapable to usdm harness, homework man.... I was the first to put a JDM motor in the 818 and I was a message away man... But that sucks sorry

[C.Plavan]

I got a race built block- forged internals, brand new case, Ecu, etc shipped to me for ~$7k $8k does seem steep for a used motor and Ecu.

[fact5racer]

The 8800 included 2500 for the motor and tranny, another $700 for stewart to ship it to me from cal, 1400 for the first shop to change some things only to give up on it, then the next shop another 4200 in parts and labor but that does include the new clutch. They are treating me nice by crediting a lot of stuff towards the next motor. Im now at a point I just want it done so I can get at least one dialed in day at the track this season before I have to put it away for the winter. I also can't thank Brian at IWire for giving me unreal help in changing over the harness for the 7 series.

[C.Plavan]

I hope you get it on the track soon. Good luck. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions. Brian is the man.

[iWire]

The 8800 included 2500 for the motor and tranny, another $700 for stewart to ship it to me from cal, 1400 for the first shop to change some things only to give up on it, then the next shop another 4200 in parts and labor but that does include the new clutch. They are treating me nice by crediting a lot of stuff towards the next motor. Im now at a point I just want it done so I can get at least one dialed in day at the track this season before I have to put it away for the winter. I also can't thank Brian at IWire for giving me unreal help in changing over the harness for the 7 series.


I hope you get it on the track soon. Good luck. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions. Brian is the man.

Thanks guys. The biggest thing here is that although the V5/6 (99-00) shares a lot in common with the newer engines, it's still old technology from an electronics standpoint which makes getting it to work in a car it wasn't designed for a lot tougher. Sticking with an OBD2 platform that utilizes modern tuning makes life much simpler and cheaper in the long run.