JDM engines... to trust or not?

[motorvated]

My miata is up there im miles. About to turn 200K. In light of this, I've been motor shopping. On ebay (go figure) there are companies all over; these companies sell JDM motors. Usually they have 40-50K miles, or so they claim. There is a company in NJ that sells them and I can get a motor for my car for $600 give or take a little.

Ive heard some horrible things, and some great things. Like the internals being swapped for ****ty stuff, compression being horrible and various other things. So im after the truth!

Have any of you used these JDM import motors? Any car..240s,integras,miatas. Just looking for feedback and advice.

[4N2NR]

I purchased an engine off of eBay from a junkyard in Florida who apparently had it shipped from a junkyard in Ohio for my Concorde and am extremely happy with it. I have put about 15,000 miles on it after installing it and done nothing more than routine maintenance. But you should carefully check out the prospective seller. Look at their feedback, volume of sales and even contact a couple of people who purchased similar items to see if after installing the engine it held up well or took extra to get it right. You should be able to send eBay messages to those that have left feedback to find out if the motor was everything as advertised, shipping charges and transit time and how well it is holding up.

[DPancoast]

Do your research. Whatever shop it is, see what they offer with the engine.

Wiring? ECU? etc...

See if they have a compression test printout or proof that the engine ran before it was taken out of whatever car it came from. See if they have documentation as to how many miles were on the car.

Also, we have a vendor on here with the username EliteImports, he does nothing but importing of clips and stuff. I bet they could help you out and you'll know its a good source because they are a vendor here.

[Proven]

I'm def. a fan of this topic considering one of my buddies owns Elite Imports here in Philly (yes give them a call for your engine).

ALOT of companies buy in bulk from Japan and Malaysia. What they do is pick up the phone / or email and say "yeah I need 10 of this and 10 of that, etc etc." With this you get some guy over seas randomly grabbing engines and tossing them into a container. Some of these engines are actually sitting outside in the elements. The Company doing business like this gets very cheap prices but in turn is taking a risk of getting crap. Then, they pass this risk onto the Customer.

Companies doing business this way have put fear into the industry and have raised many questions like yours.

The RIGHT way of doing business within this field is like what Nick from Elite Imports (www.elitejdm.com) does. Nick flies out to Japan to hand pick what he will buy so that when this engine reaches the customer there are no worries! He will actually drive the car before it’s broken down or if the engines already out he will do a compression check, check the plugs, etc. on the spot before loading.

I know I sound like a commercial or like I’m trying to get in some quick advertising for my buddy but everything I say is true. I'm sure everyone has heard the term "if your going to do it, do it right the first time". Any Business following that goes by this should be praised.

www.elitejdm.com (they are also in the vendor section here)

[Spocknasty]

I can definitely vouch for Nick and Elite JDM. Great company.

I have a JDM motor in my car and it ran fine until I ****ed with it.

[motorvated]

I'll check them out, thanks! See what kind of prices they have.

[Vr-4-Life]

Originally Posted by Proven

I'm def. a fan of this topic considering one of my buddies owns Elite Imports here in Philly (yes give them a call for your engine).

ALOT of companies buy in bulk from Japan and Malaysia. What they do is pick up the phone / or email and say "yeah I need 10 of this and 10 of that, etc etc." With this you get some guy over seas randomly grabbing engines and tossing them into a container. Some of these engines are actually sitting outside in the elements. The Company doing business like this gets very cheap prices but in turn is taking a risk of getting crap. Then, they pass this risk onto the Customer.

Companies doing business this way have put fear into the industry and have raised many questions like yours.

The RIGHT way of doing business within this field is like what Nick from Elite Imports (www.elitejdm.com) does. Nick flies out to Japan to hand pick what he will buy so that when this engine reaches the customer there are no worries! He will actually drive the car before it’s broken down or if the engines already out he will do a compression check, check the plugs, etc. on the spot before loading.

I know I sound like a commercial or like I’m trying to get in some quick advertising for my buddy but everything I say is true. I'm sure everyone has heard the term "if your going to do it, do it right the first time". Any Business following that goes by this should be praised.

www.elitejdm.com (they are also in the vendor section here)

i have also heard MANY good things about elite JDM from friends that have been customers...


also check out hmotors online. i have a JDM swap in my del sol from them.


EDIT.... wait what... you have a miata and you want a jdm swap? wtf swap a hard core usdm LS1

[motorvated]

no. it takes a LOT of money to do that, and i dont want it.

[Vr-4-Life]

JDM swaps usually do too.

[motorvated]

ok. your right.

[TROLL]

+1 for Elite JDM... like said above you may find 'deals' elsewhere but there's a reason for it... the stuff isnt carefully selected and some of it is garbage.

I talked to Nick at Elite last night about how he goes about business and was very impressed. You can even go down to the shop and he'll start any of the engines for you right there, you can see and hear it run and rev to know that things are peachy. Thats impressive, and you know what you're getting.

[Honduh]

Elite JDM's website is lacking to say the least. I'm not in the market currently, but do they actually stock JDM honda motors?

[TROLL]

yeah they just got a ton of them... they've got so much inventory coming in and out that they're struggling to keep up with it. the shop is very organized though and they know all the details about each engine so just give them a call if you're looking, or even just curious about what they have.

[92sileighty]

Originally Posted by TROLL

yeah they just got a ton of them... they've got so much inventory coming in and out that they're struggling to keep up with it. the shop is very organized though and they know all the details about each engine so just give them a call if you're looking, or even just curious about what they have.

well said. elite jdm is the only place i would ever trust for any used motor, nick takes his business seriously and gets the best **** out there. can't go wrong

[Vr-4-Life]

Originally Posted by Honduh

Elite JDM's website is lacking to say the least. I'm not in the market currently, but do they actually stock JDM honda motors?

get yourself a JDM H22A and build it up or a sick ass type R


its funny how JDM honda motors are so much more powerful.

[Renegade_]

Originally Posted by Honduh

Elite JDM's website is lacking to say the least. I'm not in the market currently, but do they actually stock JDM honda motors?

http://www.driftpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=230

They sure do.

[Vr-4-Life]

*orgasim*

[Zapata2119]

I can vouch for noyan in virginia that's where i got my jdm engine they definitely know what they're doing