2nd fa20 gone, other options?
 

I love this car but she keeps breakin my heart. (And my wallet).

I lost my first motor last year and opted to swap in a used low km fa20, the cheapest option at the time, which has now died (likely cause I was dumb enough to do the valve spring recall).

The first time around I had considered doing an ls swap and I'm back to that or another motor as there is no way in hell another fa20 is going in it.

Question is: are there any other motors that are easier to install canbus wise or cheaper overall? I admit the project is bigger than what I can tackle in my driveway and I have been quoted 18 to 25k depending on ls and transmission I go with by the local LS swap guru.

Get a 2014 + FA20 and enjoy many trouble free miles like the rest of us.

What happened to your replacement? Silicone starvation? How many miles, and did you get in contact with the dealer? These dealers shouldn't be getting away with incompetence resulting in losses of thousands of dollars for their customers.

If you have the funds and the desire to stick it out and overcome issues....absolutely do an aluminum block ls based swap. It is fairly well sorted, and is the best swap in terms of maintaining handling and weight balance (best you can), also super reliable motor wise. There will be a TON of issues but it's probably worth it.

This

What’s wrong with the engine? Is it NA or FI?

The cheapest swap for full (headache free) canbus will be Pure Automotive’s K24 swap. If you do it yourself then it could be done for sub $15k.

Why are you popping motors?

I've done 120+ events, and 60+ boosted events on my original motor, and am still going.

To back up this guy. Dirt Fish regularly clocks over something like 5000 hours of rally time before tear down. And thats more than the wrx brethren



I bought this chassis based on the motor not being a glass pistol

My 2013 is daily driven and recall did. Been trouble free since I bought it.
Usual ware and tear items but nothing major besides the TOB.

If I was in OP's shoes I would abandon ship. Luck does not favor you with this car. Time to move on.

If you want to go LS, just buy a corvette. Or a Camero, hell even a new mustang.

There are way better cars out there than the 86. Just say'n

First one is I dunno. 2nd one is bad mechanics and should be covered by the dealership.

The only thing wrong with the FA20 is the "talented technician" within 100 metres.
The steering can easily turn away from kangaroos and "talented technicians".

K24 and never look back or sell the car and get into something else. LS swap doesn't make sense when you can get an LS swapped car for like $20k. There's an LS swapped BRZ by me (Michigan) for just north of $20k already completed and looks nice to boot.

I lied with the Dirtfish run time hours, they say they get above 1000+ hours not 5000.

still. thats a good ammount of hammering if you assume 6 hours a day they get belted on with everyone and anyone

166 track days between rebuilds! That's pretty darn solid!