NC 2.5L engine swap (Aus Spec)

[bruce]

Geez. The wrecker is buying and selling you the worst motors. First was cracked, second blown! Third will probably be full of water.

[Mr Morlock]

looks like they cannot go wrong with a warranty. The motors are clearly never checked and just return the rubbish for another one. Stop at .....

[Adrianvh]

well for this one I requested the engine number and vin and did a check. Also asked for a compression test.
So its a 2010 motor. 125/120/125/125 psi. Its in and running now so all good.
Time to enjoy my baby again!

[mephisto2020]

Finally gotten my car back together after pretty much rebuilding most of the car from a harsh past life, plus lots of preventative maintenance for the future.

Thank you to everyone who's been so helpful in posting their guides throughout this thread, it's been my most visited page for a fair few afternoons now! I've gone from not doing anything beyond say replacing a starter or alternator to this huge job all thanks to really great guidance through this thread and the community as a whole

I have to say that having a 2.5L motor, max power headers and Helmholtz in the car and then adding a 'race' aftermarket muffler like the Cobra MZ05 isn't that suitable for the roads with the amount of noise it produces, but oh wow that noise is amazing!

I'm really hesitant to do this as I love the soundtrack of a throaty deafening exhaust when I put the foot down but I'm going to go back to the stock exhaust until I can find a way to swap or sell the race muffler for a super-q muffler or anything much quieter than the race muffler. I assume it's usually used for a nice throaty noise with no aftermarket mid or header installed, at the moment if I hit 5k+ revs you can hear me a fair way away, maybe 6-7 blocks at least? lol I imagine even more, it's quite absurd

I'd definitely recommend swapping for a 2.5 if your 2L dies like mine did, it was $1100 for the engine, $100 for the timing kit, another few hundred for oil/consumables as per the first page of the thread, then another $1000 for a EcuTek cable+tune though that last cost can go down a little by just borrowing the cable from tuners too. This all came out cheaper than the $4k asking price I was given for a stock 2L motor just on it's own with no labor/installation/etc. Heck I think my whole exhaust, Ohlins, engine, consumables, brake pads/rotors/lines, clutch and everything else would still be cheaper than having the 2L replaced professionally, so I'm super happy with the swap!

[keito]

Finally gotten my car back together after pretty much rebuilding most of the car from a harsh past life, plus lots of preventative maintenance for the future.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but have you gone through the process of getting it engineered? If so, how did you find the whole process?

[bruce]

Good on you for persevering. I'd hate to add up all the hours you spent on this (inlcuding those hours swapping dud motors).

[mephisto2020]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but have you gone through the process of getting it engineered? If so, how did you find the whole process?

I haven't no mate, I wouldn't imagine it would be greatly difficult but I haven't yet crossed that bridge.

[mephisto2020]

FYI for others doing the swap:

Genuine pilot/spigot bearing from Mazda - $80
Pilot/spigot bearing from Clutchpro - $25
Part no. ASB710

Source: replacing mine again due to noise with the 25-30km old, nearly new genuine Mazda one.


On the plus side my exhaust is legal now! It doesn't get noticed a km or two away anymore after changing out the Cobra MZ05 race muffler with the stock muffler til I can buy a Super-Q.
To my ears the 2.5 motor, max power headers, helmholtz and stock muffler sound awful and droney, while the MZ05 muffler sounds like pure car porn but far too loud if you have anything other than stock header/mid - it was significantly louder than a mates Triumph speed triple with an aftermarket exhaust when both are revved above 4k.

I'd highly rate it for a car with stock mid/headers though if you like a nice exhaust note! It sounds amazing! I just wish I could find baffles or something to use mine again. I really hope the super-q sounds even a bit as good but at a more legal volume.

[Adrianvh]

I have Racing beat headers and the Q muffler, stock mid pipe. Really happy with the sound. The burble on decel is giggle inducing, especially with racerom

[mephisto2020]

I have Racing beat headers and the Q muffler, stock mid pipe. Really happy with the sound. The burble on decel is giggle inducing, especially with racerom

Is the Q louder than stock? I'd hoped it would be similar to the amazing noise I'd gotten with the race muffler, just quieter/not ear-bleedingly loud. Stock it's either barely audible or tinny.

[Deckspeed Racing]

Just reading all the posts, we have successfully converted 15 NCs to 2.5 litre, from street to full race engines. We load our Ecutech dase tune and than live tune the car on our Dyno. Every car than requires fine tuning to achieve maximum performance. Even stand 2.0 NCs tend to vary up 10KW on the Dyno depending on KMs, fuel, exhaust etc. To have an Aussie Licence loaded and the car tuned correctly cost $800.oo Road Cars $1,000 Race cars
We are based in Sydney Ph 1300 885 145

[Adrianvh]

I rang and spoke to you back at the beginning and considered sending the car up but the costs for freight up to sydney and back to Melb blew out.
Good price BTW!

[bruce]

Drive the car up to Sydney and book a cheap flight home. Do reverse to pick up. Easy.

[Adrianvh]

adds a lot to the build cost.
Not to mention paying for the engine swap in Sydney, Sydney warranty on new 2.5 engine etc.

[Regie]

is Deckspeed still doing the 2.5 conversions with the 2.0 heads?