Can the Front be Back-Dated?

[staples323]

Originally Posted by A&F

*Flat-4 - First Gen has a torque dip, only makes 200hp and is known to eat road bearings and grenade the whole engine.

I wouldn't say the fa20 is known to eat rod bearings. Most failures come from people who went FI and tried to put more power than the engine could handle through it without proper supporting mods.

I, and many others, tracked the 1st gen for years and never had a single engine issue.

[Blighty]

Originally Posted by staples323

I wouldn't say the fa20 is known to eat rod bearings. Most failures come from people who went FI and tried to put more power than the engine could handle through it without proper supporting mods.

I, and many others, tracked the 1st gen for years and never had a single engine issue.

Yep, and we can bet this gen will not be any different. People will go FI and break it no doubt.

[PulsarBeeerz]

Yeah FA20s aren't nearly as reliable as RBs. Wait...

[A&F]

Originally Posted by staples323

I wouldn't say the fa20 is known to eat rod bearings. Most failures come from people who went FI and tried to put more power than the engine could handle through it without proper supporting mods.

I, and many others, tracked the 1st gen for years and never had a single engine issue.

I don't know man. I just know I see tons of threads about it, I can go on Facebook market place and find 4 cars that needs engines within 500 miles of me (AZ), my buddy just picked up a 2015 automatic with a blown engine in Michigan - automatic, 56k miles, kid lost the engine trying to do a 100mph pull on the highway one night. Super clean car too.



Other threads put to small oil passages or oil passages that are potentially restricted at the factory because of assembly adhesive/sealant. High price of used cores indicates high-demand for engine replacements (unless you're prepared to argue a low car loss rate).



Either way, it's no Six-Sigma / World Class quality standard even if only "2%" fail.

[A&F]

Originally Posted by PulsarBeeerz

Yeah FA20s aren't nearly as reliable as RBs. Wait...

Very insightful, Much Comment, Many Reads.

[A&F]

So I guess the consensus is - Nobody here actually knows if the underlying mounting points have changed or not.

[soundman98]

that was in one of the first posts. the center portion of the car is fundamentally the same, but the sheet metal at both ends underwent a serious redesign indicating nothing will line up on either end. the new headlights are an entirely different shape, i'd be shocked if they didn't alter the entire front half as part of the fa24 update. the fenders, hood, and bumpers all have dramatically different shapes, none of which indicate they maintained mounting points from the previous gen.

[Shrapnel]

There’s no way the old front end is just going to bolt up on the new car, it’s going to require lots of hacking and modifying. Best to either leave it be or buy a different car. Or you could just engine swap into the old body.

[soundman98]

i really thing your only option for an analog car of the toyota variety is either something older, or a '12-15 86.

too many new government regulations coming in anything newer, they've all got tech in them.

it's why i got a '14.

[2020BRZtS]

Your time has value. Even with the higher cost of a used car, sourcing a donor car and doing any changes to force it on will end up costing you more in the end.

[Spektyr]

If you want to put a Dodge Cummings diesel front end on one of these and you're willing to spend enough money and/or do enough work, you can do it.

As far as the reliability of the engine goes, no amount of anecdotal evidence about the number of blown engines you can find mentioned online is actually relevant. The Internet attracts extreme stories. You're going to hear the worst more often than you hear the best. That's the nature of the beast.

Sure, there are a lot of motors that are messed up. It's a sports car and a relatively underpowered one at that (particularly 1st gen). So what do people do? They flog it. Particularly the 1st gen, where you didn't get any performance out of it to speak of until you had it over 5k rpm.

They don't rebuild the engine in a race car every few races just to justify paying the mechanics' salaries. Wringing them out on a regular basis wears them out faster. Add a little human stupidity/naivety and the fact that a production motor is not in any way race-ready and built to withstand that abuse, and you have a recipe for a lot of people ruining their toys.

Some of those people own up to it and say, "darn thing gave out while I was trying to double the speed limit on the highway". Other people lie and say, "I've babied it every day of its life and it just gave out for no reason" while standing in front of a huge pile of burnt-up tires.

There are some motors that are more bullet-proof than others. If you want a car you can beat like a rented mule and it keeps coming back for more, this probably ain't it. But if you take care of it and stay within the margins of what it's built to do (or, increase those margins by putting the parts/work in to make it stronger) you should easily get MANY more miles on the clock than the people telling scary stories online.

[A&F]

Originally Posted by Spektyr

If you want to put a Dodge Cummings diesel front end on one of these and you're willing to spend enough money and/or do enough work, you can do it.

As far as the reliability of the engine goes, no amount of anecdotal evidence about the number of blown engines you can find mentioned online is actually relevant. The Internet attracts extreme stories. You're going to hear the worst more often than you hear the best. That's the nature of the beast.

Sure, there are a lot of motors that are messed up. It's a sports car and a relatively underpowered one at that (particularly 1st gen). So what do people do? They flog it. Particularly the 1st gen, where you didn't get any performance out of it to speak of until you had it over 5k rpm.

They don't rebuild the engine in a race car every few races just to justify paying the mechanics' salaries. Wringing them out on a regular basis wears them out faster. Add a little human stupidity/naivety and the fact that a production motor is not in any way race-ready and built to withstand that abuse, and you have a recipe for a lot of people ruining their toys.

Some of those people own up to it and say, "darn thing gave out while I was trying to double the speed limit on the highway". Other people lie and say, "I've babied it every day of its life and it just gave out for no reason" while standing in front of a huge pile of burnt-up tires.

There are some motors that are more bullet-proof than others. If you want a car you can beat like a rented mule and it keeps coming back for more, this probably ain't it. But if you take care of it and stay within the margins of what it's built to do (or, increase those margins by putting the parts/work in to make it stronger) you should easily get MANY more miles on the clock than the people telling scary stories online.

Been doing this almost 20 years. I'll chalk this up as the classic - "It's a finely tuned British/Italian/etc. Car that's extremely reliable as long as it's lovely owned and maintained by a knowledgeable, dedicated and skilled enthusiast".



Heuristics is a thing and it does work.