Looking for Community Input on Blown FA20: To replace or not to replace
 

I haven't seen many posts along these lines so I started my own.

I've had a blown FA20 (threw a con rod) sitting in my garage for about the last 16 months now and, having gotten past the emotional turmoil and heartbreak of having taken my chances with a flex fueled C30 supercharged setup and lost, I'm trying to decide whether it's worth just sourcing a used engine and keeping it N/A with a few remaining upgrades. The idea would be to keep it as a third vehicle. It's a 2014 WRB Premium BRZ and I still have a number of aftermarket upgrades on the car that I haven't really been interesting in taking the time to return to stock and it seems remarkably wasteful to sell it for dirt to a wrecking or auction company. The remaining upgrades include:

- PTuning flex fuel kit,
- DW300c fuel pump
- ID1050X injectors
- Southbend stage II clutch
- MTEC shifter springs
- Whiteline trans bushing
- Verus forged clutch fork
- relatively new Bilstein B6 shocks

I'm particularly conflicted because, as I understand it, if I can source a decent 2014+ longblock, the swapout should be plug-and-play in theory. Of course, searching for a "decent" long block in that year range is proving difficult. I'm mostly relying on www.car-part.com and checking ebay every now and then for reptuable sellers, but not having much success. Beyond that, whatever engine I would be able to source, I know I would be on the clock to get it started in case I needed to make a warranty claim for a dud engine, but that's more on me to plan properly.

I've pretty much ruled out swapping out the shortblock as that is just beyond my technical capability such that I don't want to risk spending all that effort and still have some non-trivial issue that will require even more money and time to solve. In particular, not having any idea whether metal debris circulated through the oil after the con rod punched through the engine case, I have no idea what state the heads are in.

Also, I don't have the time, patience, or $$ to do a swap like for a K24 or some other involved project, so it's either return to stock, perhaps with flex fuel tune at a minimum, or just sell the whole thing for whatever I can get.

What would you do?

What about replacing the whole long block with an engine from the junkyard ? Plenty of wrecked fa20s out there.

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That's currently my go-to solution via www.car-part.com. Accessories are all fine so I really just need the long block.

Yeah that would give you more options I feel

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Something else I would note is that, if I don't spend the money reviving my BRZ, I would likely spend it on a used car that would be a backup car. So the conundrum is whether I would spend that cash and personal effort to regain what would otherwise still be a very nice car in terms of comfort (not so much practicality as a two-door sport coupe), or purchase a much higher mileage car for the same cost that wouldn't be nearly as nice and would probably start to fall apart sooner.

I should add that I previously did all the work on my BRZ to install the JRSC kit and other add-ons so I don't see replacing the engine as a technical challenge, per se, if it truly is plug-and-play. However, if I run into problems upon startup, I'll very quickly need to either my e-tuner and/or this community for help given how complex problems can sometimes be with this platform.

@vfrqqq As long as you get an engine from a zenki (2013-2016), you'll have no problems.

I had to replace my engine this spring. I opted to buy a whole donor car from auction (through a CoPart Broker) with relatively low mileage, which cost about $8000 (~$4500+fees+taxes+delivery) dropped off at my door.

After gutting the donor car and selling parts off, the net cost of the engine came to about $3500 (which is cheaper than market for a decent FA20 right now). Obviously the total value you can derive from parting out a car depends on its condition.

• I could have parted it out even more, but I was comfortable with the value I got out of it. I opted not to chop up the electrical harnesses and left enough for it to actually be rolled-away without a forklift.
• I still have to break into my old engine block to see if it can be saved, but I expect to earn about $500-$1000 back on that too if it's suitable for a rebuild and I end up letting it go.

I preferred this method over a junkyard or eBay engine. You get to know exact mileage, # of previous owners, and as-is condition of the car post accident. This subsequently gives you a better idea of the health of the engine and any potential risks. You don't also have to worry about how somebody else removes, handles, and ships the engine block.


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Some factors to consider:

• The space and time to deal with storing and parting-out a whole other car. And the tools if you don't have them handy or anyone to borrow from (engine hoist, engine stand, etc.).
• The time that you want/have to spend at your computer during the live auction to bid and ensure you get the car you are interested in.
• Overall demand for parts (local vs national) and selling costs for things you intend to ship (eBay fees + shipping can eat up to 25% of sale price, less if sold via PayPal G&S) factor into how much/how fast you recover your costs

@EndlessAzure, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your thoughtful feedback on this. I definitely have the tools and I believe I should be able to source both an engine lift and stand. I can probably muster the patience to part out a car and recoup some of the cost to make it worth it, but adequate space is probably going to be my limiting factor. My spouse has been waiting very patiently this whole time to put our second car in the garage so I’m not sure where I’d keep a donor car if a friend or family member isn’t willing to lend me their space.

I did something similar to get my FRS. Before car prices went crazy, I made friends with the manager of a small car lot near my house. I would stop in weekly and we would look at various auction cars. My car was in Tx. We got it for $6k, $300 auction fee, $500 shipping, and $500 to the dealer.

I looked into getting a "totaled" car but in Va you needed to be a broker to bid on Copart.

I built mine and upped the boost. Smiles per gallon went through the roof

Just got back from Boise yesterday where my '13 ticked over 100k miles.
8 hours from 80 to 60 both ways. Still ticking over reliably and no blinking lights or trash in the oil.
The twins in stock configuration has been a completely reliable performer for what I do with it.

Sure you *can* boost and modify the hell out of them but it's not required.
52 south of Lowman over the pass was enchanting and superbly enjoyable even though I only got to 45 at most.
The route is really that contorted.

Also, I assume JDM engine is not going to be plug-and-play, correct? I thought there were differences with the AVCS and sensors that monitor that.

I have no idea with regard to region.


I just know there are cam sensor differences between zenki (-2016) and kouki (2017+)

Help me out here. I guessing Zenki and Kouki refer to pre-facelift and post-facelift models.

Keep in mind that 2015-2016 also had updated coil packs with different plugs.

Yes, I have provided the year ranges for reference on zenki and kouki

Upgraded coil packs on zenki don't matter if you source an engine that still has its harness attached. It's the same main connector between engine and body

It's not just the cam sensors. The reluctor wheel for cam positioning is different as is the crank position sensor and reluctor wheel. Inny vs. Outy. Pre-facelift ECU can't read the signal on the crank sensor. There was a thread a while back where someone was running the facelift cam sensors/cam gears, or some combination of parts on a pre-facelift car and it was reading the cam position, BUT, he was having issues with cam correlation codes. Not totally sure the guy knew what he had though so am kind of skeptical. Can't remember exactly being smooth brained and all.

TLDR OP find a used engine and fix the car. Will be worth far more complete then with blown engine if you decide to go a different route down the road.

Thank you everyone for the helpful feedback. I've decided to move forward with replacing the engine and, as a matter of giving back to the community, I'll try to document what I did and post up about it as I'm able.

Or just keep your 13-14 harness and use your 13-14 coil packs on the 15-16 engine

Last motor swap I did (which was a few years ago) took about 5 hours from driving one into the garage with rod knock to firing the new (used, ebay) motor up.

These things are stupid simple.

I had your opinion here until a buddy pushed me to just go for it. How long did you drive it after it was blown? I shut my car down within a minute, and the heads were super clean. There aren't THAT many crevices metal bits can hide, and you really don't have to take apart as much as you think. Chances are the heads are just fine, and the new-ish subaru head gaskets Subaru uses now with multiple layers of metal mean head gasket failures aren't really a thing. The most annoying part is scraping off the RTV. The youtube content around a short block replacement has come a long way too since when I did mine ~3 years ago. You'll be freaking out about stuff because it's your first time, but you can do anything with the forum guidance/youtube. Just get a torque wrench and follow the manual.


You'll probably want to buy:
- full engine gasket kit. You won't need all of the gaskets in the kit. (map performance has a good priced one)
- Engine timing kit, this includes chains, tensioners and guides (ebay)
- crankshaft bolt (from subaru dealership)
- head bolts (from subaru dealership
- Right stuff grey gasket maker. Black works okay too, but it's not officially rated for "asian" vehicles.
- Good time to replace the clutch and maybe flywheel, throw out bearing too. If you do this, get some grease (brake grease is fine here)
- Good time to replace the spark plugs too.


Then you'll need to buy/rent an engine hoist.

Thanks for the feedback. I ended up finding a used motor with about the same mileage as my blown motor that was only about 25 miles away, was compression and run tested, and came with a six month warranty. So whatever I end up doing with the blown motor (e.g., parting it out, rebuilding with an IAG short block, etc.), I can take my time. The points about the support from this forum and YouTube to do just about anything one could wish to a BRZ/FR-S are well taken as I've definitely benefited from that in past. For now though, I will have a working vehicle and I can final give back to my wife the other garage parking space :paddle:

At this point, the replacement motor has been installed and I'm waiting on parts for the exhaust before I can begin the process of firing up the new motor.

The engine replacement is all finish and my BRZ lives to see another day! I think I got lucky mating the engine to the transmission as it only took about 30 minutes of orienting the engine and transmission before they were fully together. I was fully expecting that part to take hours and at least a couple attempts!

I ended up removing all the old flex fuel from the tank and fuel lines all the way--working with flex fuel is so much nicer than gasoline. I also reinstalled the OEM fuel pump and ended up cleaning all port and direct fuel injectors and replaced the fuel delivery pipes for the direct injector system. Replacing the fuel pipes seems quite wasteful and not inexpensive, but I didn't want to take any chances give the high operating pressures of the DI system and not wanting to have to pull everything apart to deal with a potential fuel leak. Perhaps I made up for it by avoiding having to drop $$$ on the specialized tools for installing new DI seals as I'd improvised my own. I ended up using various different sized washers, the perfectly sized head of a mechanical pencil that I had to modify a little, and a small plastic block left over from some Ikea furniture. Turns out a 5/16" drill bit was perfect for making a hole in the plastic block that I could just slide over the DI seal after it was installed to restore its form after being stretched out. A delicate operation to be sure, but patience and a comfortable work area proved crucial for success.

I attempted to clean out as much gunk from the intake ports as I could but was only really able to work on the one side of the engine with closed intake valves. I wasn't able to fill up the other side with carburetor cleaner so I just wiped up as much as I could. I made the silly mistake of forgetting to reconnect the vacuum line for the brake booster before I'd attempted to start and idle the motor a few times for the first time after the install:mad0260:. After correcting that problem, the motor has been running very smoothly and the data logs seem to reflect as much.

All in all, given it was my first time replacing a motor and dismantling the fuel system, I figured there were easily about 25 or more opportunities for me to have substantially screwed something up that would take way more patience to troubleshoot than I was interested in, so it's quite nice that everything worked out (knocked on wood).

Thanks to all for feedback, thoughts, and discussion on this. I greatly appreciate it.