Rebuild?

[JamesHale]

I know nissan produce really good engines, much like honda which ive had no problems with mine so far, but looking to buy my S15 soon and wondering, at what milage may a rebuild need to happen and what will need changing?

If anyones rebuilt their engine, some advice would be appreciation at what milage's things start to go..

 

[DeanS15]

I wouldn't worry about a 'scheduled' rebuild if you're looking, even if you tune it you may get many years without the need to. It's more important to maintain it properly, THE most important thing being oil changes. Then it's a case of how you drive it, how you tune it and who tunes it. Knowing the limitations of the engine according to the level of tune you want is also important so as to avoid things like head gasket failure etc due to too much boost. The biggest killers are oil starvation due to sludge on poorly maintained cars, too much boost or a poor tune (detonation) and top end failures due to constant high revs (drifting etc) which can destroy the rocker arms and in turn the whole engine in some cases. Just think, lots of people use the cars for drifting with quite a low level of tune which puts a lot of stress on not just the engine, but everything else too. there's no reason a well maintained road car won't give you years of driving without the need sometimes people are just very unlucky and the engine fails, but normally it can always be attributed back to one of the reasons above

 

[JamesHale]

ah thats alright then, was a bit worried when unless im gonna import a car with under 50K miles which will cost me a bomb, a lot of the models have 80K milage on them, so hopefully shouldnt be a problem if i buy one 70-100K miles?

 

[S15AK]

Like Dean said its how its been looked after, so don't worry about milage if you know its been cared for. I would prefer to buy a well looked after 80k car then a low milage one that hasn't been.

 

[JamesHale]

May be buying one from here anyway so im sure its been looked after

 

[Auss15]

If it does'nt come with a service record you can do some fundamental checks to guage it's condition.


I would take the oil filer cap off and look at the rocker gear for any oil sludge or build up, I would take the radiator cap off and check the conditon of the coolant,I would look

underneath for oil leaks and damage,and I would start it up cold and listen for engines noises. If you can put it up on a hoist that can reveal a lot and I would then drive it,especially over road bumps to hear any suspension issues.

Thats just a start.

 

[JamesHale]

There a thread for other checks?

 

[sjt47y]

Listen too for VCt rattle.

 

[gaz15]

if these engines are very well looked after and kept in good condition then how much milage can you expect to get out of them roughly before having to rebuild it, if your just using it as a daily and not constantly drifting it etc ?

 

[Adam L]

Well there's a lot of people on the sxoc running stage 3a cars, which is 350bhp+ with 140k miles on the clock with no issues. It's a bit of an odd question to ask really, when you'll need a rebuild, it's impossible to say.

 

[Jay]

how long is a piece of string? a well cared for engine could last several hundred thousand miles, a poorly maintained one could be knackered after 10k. if it came to it then 2nd hand engines are readily available in good nick for under a grand, and are pretty easy to remove/install.
no engine (honda's included) are indestructable. use good quality oil, changed regularly, and avoid bouncing it off the rev limiter. follow these simple rules and the engine should last beyond your ownership of the car.

 

[craig8585]

May be buying one from here anyway so im sure its been looked after

Hmm, I wouldn't assume it's been cared for just because it's on here!

 

[DeanS15]

Hmm, I wouldn't assume it's been cared for just because it's on here!

Never a truer word spoken...

 

[Nickichi]

When I brought my car it already had 70k on the clock, probably put another 30K on since because its used as a daily. minimal tuning at present and with the metal timing chain pretty rock strong and going good. It's more maintenance I have to carry out due to the higher mileage (thanks to bloody work), replacing old worn parts like tension rods & bushes with better after-market items and the clutch is making a groaning sound when the pedal is first dis-pressed & held when the box is cold in the morning (must try to investigate this sometime, any help guys as to the problem).

I'm not even considering a rebuild yet until I start upping the boost in which case it will have stronger internals installed and the displacement changed