JDM Engines Worth the Hype? EJ205 review

Picked up this JDM EJ205 from JDM Of Philly for my auto x car. Things didn't go as planned.

[IHCrusader]

Haynes manual states cylinder compression check must be done at normal operating temperature with a fully charged battery and seven compression strokes.

[tflo]

The reason your jdm engine doesn't have timing belt guide is b/c it's from an automatic.

[mikesti]

Water in the pan is probably from them pressure washing it with intake off and water going into cylinders. Probably why the rings were sticking as well.

[jerimiebrown]

The sticker is when the timing belt was replaced. Not when the engine was pulled. I have one on my all stock 1994 wrx.

[juanarroyo]

I got my EJ205 from JDM engine pro, I decided to go to the warehouse personally because I wasnt comfortable with shipping. I got there and right away they walked me in showing me which ejs they had in stock & which had AVCS. I chose just the ej205 longblock without the AVCS. They said okay grabbed the engine and right away started to set up for a compression test on the spot. Called me over and compression on all cylinders was a go. Only issue I had was the timing belt cover was broken but I can easily swap it out with my old engine. And for $750 I cant complain much for an engine with 50k miles.

[marksimmons]

the first engine was residue from steamcleaner water

[zackm]

The first motor was perfect. Just imagine how much water is ran threw the motor when headgaskets blow. most head jobs I do have a few quarts of water in the oil. That water was just sitting there from being cleaned.

[jamesgravey]

Thanks for the video. I've lived in Philly for 10 years. When I started getting into cars, I ran into the same kind of issues with Philly mechanics, dealerships etc. Unfortunately a lot of the vendors in this city are bad at their jobs and really sketchy, you never know what you're going to get.

[VortexTheCreeper]

Really appreciate the time you took to make this video and explain thoroughly for anyone like myself considering a JDM engine. I just rebuilt my ej251 and I’m considering in the future an ej205 non-AVCS for my ‘01 Forester. Hopefully I can get my hands in a good motor. Thanks and keep up the great work!

[thomashingerjr]

I bought an ej253 from JDM out of New Jersey for around $2, 700. It was supposed to have 45, 000-60, 000 miles. It came with oil in it and it was black sludge. We drained the oil and replaced it with Mobil 1. We turned the engine over to pump oil through the system. We plugged the coil pack in. We started the engine and it ran less than 30 seconds and thud! The engine was locked up tight. They refused to warranty the engine because we didn't change the timing belt and oil pump. I only found out about this requirement after going to their website to file a warranty claim. We sent them a video of the engine trying to be turned over with a breaker bar and it was locked up tight. The day before we finally took the engine apart trying to figure out what happened. The timing belt looked almost brand new in the engine, not even a speck of damage to it. The oil pan had about a quarter inch of sludge in the bottom of it. I have never seen an engine stop and get locked up with less than 30 seconds of runtime. In my opinion the guys working at the shops are nice to talk to on the phone, but they make you go to their website and file a warranty claim. That is where I learned about having to change the timing belt and oil pump. I even went back to the ad that I bought the engine from and did not see it at first until I went through all the drop down menus. They sent me no paperwork at all for the engine when I got it. But after looking at the timing belt and seeing that it was almost brand new and no damage at all. I have to say we just got a junk engine. Now I will try and recover my money going through PayPal. BUYER BEWARE!!!

[Ryan-smzd]

the timing belt guards are manual engines, no guards its an automatic motor. To prevent timing jump on a direct drive

[Natedoc]

They’re that clean because they are putting cleaning agent on them and pressure washing these things to pretty them up but they aren’t properly blocking off the intake ports on the heads as they wash them.

[dougrodriguez]

How do you think the long block looks so clean, the importer power washed the crap out of it.

[Smalltownthrifts]

What made you choose the Older 205 over the newer AVCS 205?
Along as your open source tuning, the WRX avcs 205 is far superior and doesn’t require you to switch sensors, crank trigger wheels, etc... Only thing you need is the IA/iWire AVCS wiring kit (easy, $150 kit) and you can even use the usdm Ecu to pass emissions

Compression is 9:1 on the jdm EJ205 btw (sure you know this now)


Wally @ JDMracingmotors & J-Spec auto would treat you well if you ever do another JDM engine.

[Etyler]

Earned my subscription and like dude! I really appreciate you taking the time to make this. This has definitely encouraged me to go to the importer’s warehouse instead of getting an engine shipped straight to my door. Right on man 🤙🏼 thanks for the video!

[Ryan-ixnr]

Wish I could get that good of luck with JDM suby engines. I'll use that supplier because it's better than I've delt with in the past. Rings and valves are susceptible to corrosion and such and need to be 'pickled' from time to time- it did travel across an ocean...these are things that need to be understood if undertaking such mechanically indepth adventures

[omarhernandez-dmqd]

I would been happy with the first engine and repaired it and then tell them to give you a major discount 👍🏾

[jayomega]

Every one loves buying a car that was owned by an “old lady” that “only drove it to church” check the compression on that car that never revved past 2500 rpm I purchased a 1jz with horrible compression on 3 cylinders (between 90 and 110) and they told me to run it. I ran it and it it is still running with beautiful compression across all cylinders. The Japanese are notorious for not changing oil because they don’t drive the cars often or even driving at highway speed. Run some good oil and free up those rings and valve buckets and it will tighten up the tolerances and the compression always bumps up.

[goinbananas]

I just put an ej20x in my 2013 WRX, I haven’t driven it yet but it’s idling as of now.

I’m concerned because the oil that came out was the blackest oil and like 3 quarts tops came out, and possibly had small metal flakes in it but I’m not 100% sure or not about that.

But $1, 300 it’s an insane deal, I’m hoping I can sell the extra stuff I’m not using like VF38 twin scroll turbo, TGV deleted runners, and tons of other stuff

[CashedOutCars]

Were you running this engine with a USDM ECU, and is that why you changed out the cam and crank sensors? Were you able to get this car through emissions or is this just a track toy? Thanks!