Blown 2016 FA20 swap 2017 FA20

[HRLQN]

Hello everyone!

I've read a few similar threads and just wanted to check a question or two. I have an AT 2016 FRS whos motor blew on the highway for some unknown reason at 64k miles. Theres a hole in the block. (Picture below)

I'm not comfortable doing anything of this scale myself or with friends so we went to a shop a few of us have been to. First they got a 2014 motor with 40k mile but it was no good to use. Now they sourced a used 2017 FRS AT motor with 18k miles.

I read the threads here so I know 13-14 and 15-16 are plug in play within themselves but 17+ is a different way. We have both the 16 (mine) and the 17 car in the shop, we are swapping the whole engines intact.

Question:
1. Are the sensors that will cause incompatibilities within the motor itself or in the wiring harness or in the bay?

2. The wiring harness from the older or the new motor should be kept?

3. If they move the ECU from the other car into mine, will it freak out my 16'computer since the 17+ has more features?

4. The whole incompatibility with a whole engine swap is the ECU and connectors not matching between 13-16 and 17+ ? Or is there more even though I'm doing the whole engine?



The car is in the shop and I just want to make sure I'm understanding what they are talking about fully, sorry if I'm slow and missed an answer to this in the other threads. Trying to grasp it all, I trust both my friend and the shop, I'm new to the car scene and car mechanics scene so I'm still getting it.


Some info for why:

** I'm a 27yr old girl, my buddy is helping guide me and explain this all as the car is getting worked on so I put an FA20 and didn't do anything crazy. The car is mine and I've only done Vland headlights, CAI, wheels, tires, coilovers, carbon wrapped interior, strut bars, louvers, side skirts, exhaust, cat/reso delete, OFT flash (I wasn't on a tune when the motor blew),cute radiator hoses, fancy engine bay caps. **

** The car is financed, the $$ this swap cost was a cheaper option then selling/parting the car; its financed and I would be upside down more then the swap $$. Not a huge difference but I like my car and want to keep it. **

Hole in the block


Towed off the highway

[Irace86.2.0]

Just curious, are you asking questions to understand their process, or are you asking for them because they don’t know? If it is the latter then isn’t that concerning that the shop doing the work doesn’t know?

To your concerns, I believe the motors are very similar between the refreshes, but do have compatibility differences. It was only the manual transmissions that got the red intake manifold and 5hp bump in power, so the automatic transmissions motors should be more compatible, but I would defer to these resources.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...=119729&page=6


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/file...17MY_BRZ_1.pdf

[HRLQN]

It's just for my understanding, I know the basic like components/process and my friend explained it well but I'm just trying to actually get where the hangup is myself lol when they explained it it sounded pretty easy to "fix" the incompatibility since we have both cars. But when I came online to try and understand what they were talking about, it sounded waaaaaaaaaaaay more complicated then just a harness and ECU.

Edit: Checked the link, and what CSG Mike said is what actually made me make the post. I don't have a great understanding of it but all of you do, and if its not a venue worth doing then I can tell them to pass on it and wait for another 13-16 motor.

I don't plan on doing any turbo/supercharger crazy engine mods to it so thats why I wanted another stock FA20 and not a built engine or anything. Its not a project swap lol its a "oh shit gotta fix my car" swap.

[Irace86.2.0]

It seems like the long block has some hardware differences and sensor differences that would suggest the ECU should stay with the motor, but it also sounds like the ECU has incompatibility with the security language, so it was suggested to refresh the old ECU with the new software. Like CSG Mike said, it may not be worth the headache. Unless a shop has performed this exact swap multiple times and is confident, I wouldn't risk having them experiment on your car.

[Tcoat]

I am going to jump in with yet another "not worth it" the differences are not huge but there are enough that it would stake some finesse to get it all working right. Also stay away fro 13 engines if you can. They are just bad news for many people.

[Cubix]

Do you know the reason a stock engine blew?

[steve99]

A couple of people jave sucessfully swapped a 2017+ motor into a 2012-2016 car.


1 its not a direct swap, you will need to swap a lot of sensors , wiring harness.


2. You will need to retain your 2016 ecu and the 2016 ecu calibration. The 2027 calibration is not compatable with the early car security.


3. Also you may need to ise the earlier model cam phasors as it seems they are diffrent , this im not sure on.


4 You will need to retune the ecu s the newer mptors wont run well with the older model tune, they dont seem to take as much ignition riming as older motors.


It will be far easier to swap in a 2016 motor

[mrg666]

Originally Posted by steve99

A couple of people jave sucessfully swapped a 2017+ motor into a 2012-2016 car.


1 its not a direct swap, you will need to swap a lot of sensors , wiring harness.


2. You will need to retain your 2016 ecu and the 2016 ecu calibration. The 2027 calibration is not compatable with the early car security.


3. Also you may need to ise the earlier model cam phasors as it seems they are diffrent , this im not sure on.


4 You will need to retune the ecu s the newer mptors wont run well with the older model tune, they dont seem to take as much ignition riming as older motors.


It will be far easier to swap in a 2016 motor

Only a part of 2017+ engine revisions are included with AT models, right? There can be additional complications.

[steve99]

Originally Posted by mrg666

Only a part of 2017+ engine revisions are included with AT models, right? There can be additional complications.

Im not sure on the auto motors, but i suspect most of the engine and sensor mods same ans manuals, maybe take away manifold

[HRLQN]

Not the slightest. I bought the car used 1 owner at 19k clean car fax. I was on the highway and it stopped accelerating, we checked the hood and oil was splattered in the back wall of the engine bay and we saw the hole. I’ve always been up to date with maintenance and miles but I travel a lot for work. I bought the car in 2017 @ 19k and it has 64k right now.

I step on it sometimes but I don’t beat it to the ground, spirited driving every now and then with other like minded on the streets is about it.

[RZNT4R]

I was going to say it works, but reading up on the differences, the cam and crank sensor plates from 2017 will confound a 2016 ECU. Swapping the ECU may be more trouble than it's worth: 2017 has a different charging system (controlled by the ECU over a one wire network), different battery sensing and wiring, same with the revised fuel pressure sensor and crank sensor. I don't know how the ECU will jive with the rest of the car from a wiring/compatibility standpoint, but slapping ECUs around (assuming you've got the full harness to go with it) prepare to deal with the engine immobiliser not wanting to go.

[DBW]

I just did a 2019 engine swap into a 2015 BRZ for a customer. Its mostly a straight forward swap but the newer gen motors run different crank/cam pick up strategy along with a different high-pressure fuel sensor.

Things that need to be change:

-The reluctor wheels on all the cam gears
-Crank trigger ring that goes between the flywheel and crankshaft
-The crank sensor bracket that bolts to the back of the block
-DI fuel rail on the passenger side with the older gen rail so it has the correct fuel pressure sensor

Other then that all you will need to do is use your old engine harness and coil packs on the new motor.