Anybody had luck with Soshin JDM motors, 5VZ-FE in particular.. ?

Hello All - Curious if anyone had success or failure buying a JDM motor from these people: Soshin Trade Corp (So Cal) or JDM of Oregon? Do tell..

They claim low mileage, but can't prove it, apparently do compression tests, run them on a simul machine, run some fresh oil through them, etc, who knows...

TIA -gax

 

I have always been up front with the various JDM resellers and have told them, I am pulling the pan and looking in the bottom of the pan for glitter and then checking the rods and mains. So far so good. The real SOAB is that the 2.4 and 2.7's are so rare that you are kind of forced to take what you can get. I did a write up on swapping a 5VE and the issues I found... oil cooler/no oil cooler and the difference in serpentine belt gooves, irritating things like that that just slow you down.

 

My friend bought an SR20 from Soshin a few years ago. They let us remove the valve cover and did a compression test in front of us. From what I could tell they were pretty honest and that engine has been great. I’ve been thinking of purchasing a backup JDM 5vz and Soshin is where I will probably look first. What price did they quote you?

 

They want $2700 plus shipping, probably $250 to a commercial address, and extra $150 to drop it in front of a house. I would feel better about it if they let us poke at it first, that strikes me as beyond the call of duty, but a nice, worthwhile gesture. I'm 450 miles from them, not such an easy 'drop by.' I've been debating having a local shop go through my 5VZ, but to spend the extra to throw it in a chasis with a transmission at 250K seems silly. I'm not trying to 'restore' a vehicle per se. I'm on the fence with the maneuver.

 

Interesting. I'll look for your post. It has occurred to me that they haven't made the motors for a long time; they won't get easier to find. The 90 days to get your act together is a concern, as you say, fool with oil coolers, and so on, try to get done and make a judgment on success in time to make a stink if something isn't right. Then there's the proving the install isn't at fault if you claim warranty.

 

Not sure how to find your swap post - can you point me to it pls?

 

From Japan? Japanese engine almost always have pretty low miles compared to the US. Expensive gas and they don't drive anywhere as much as we do here.

 

Yeah, that's part of their sales pitch for sure, also the emissions regulations over there more rigid I guess. They just can't prove the mileage, just make a claim they they are 'typically' 50 or 60K, when the authorities start pressuring owners to buy a new vehicle. It's also hard to know how long the junked motor was sitting on a rack in the rain or what have you. They also say returns and complaints are a small percentage of the thousands of motors they have sold. They would say that of course.

 

See if they can pull the valve covers and send you pictures of the motor you’ll be getting.