About 2 years ago, I purchased a ej207 from JDM engine depot. I wanted a V5, and found one for a good price ( 2800 shipped ).
It sat for the last 2 years until my sons 04 wrx died (227K). Since the 818 is on the back burner while he is in college, we decided to drop it in.
I did the normal stuff of replacing head gaskets, ARP studs, water pump, timing belt, new up pipe, misc gaskets, new ACT flywheel, clutch set up, and just swapped over the top end.
Using Tactrix we flashed the ecu with a new tune. All was going well, and then......
Started it up yesterday and the motor sounds like an angry midget swinging a hammer !
Followed advice and looked for exhaust leaks at the header and up pipe - nothing.
Checked the dipstick and you can see metal shavings running down the stick.
Severe rod knock - I 's say the bearings are gone.
So now we are rebuilding the 205. Expensive lesson learned.
No warranty due to sitting for 2 years - as expected.
Should have done the bottom end as a precaution, but with 40K on the motor, didnt think it was necessary.
Further exam this week will determine if its salvageable for a stroker kit.
Came with the trans, so that will be torn down before install - dont want the same mishap.
Only bright side to this is that I have learned a lot about Scooby engines.
Ran into a similar situation with a vender located east of Atlanta. Purchased a Roller 302 with T5 transmission, they were bolted together when I picked them up at the Vender and a quick visual inspection was conducted before acceptance. After returning home they were unloaded and sat on the garage floor for two weeks before I could make time to for clean-up and disassembly. The first step for me was to remove the transmission from the bell housing, after removing the four bolts and sliding back the transmission the top driver side ear that the bolt runs through fell off..........
I stoped my disassemble and call the vender but was meet with harsh language and blamed for the damage!!!!!
The vender did not stand behind his Warrenty!!!!!!!
Now I'm sending the Transmission to the rebuilders and going through the 302 myself!!!!
Lesson Learned!
When buying an engine from JDM importer you need to ask them for video and proof of the engine running before it was pulled. Very few do this sadly and mostly cause a lot of times they are trash motors. When I imported my motor I received pics and videos of the engine running. When I revived the engine i looked for key spots and markings that i saw in the video to prove to myself that this was in fact the engine shown in the video.
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