Huge dilemma need help deciding on motor options!

[RckyMtnLegacy]

Ok so my white legacy has been sitting for about 6 months after yet another spun bearing. The motor is waiting for me to give the go ahead on a hone, all journals fixed, pistons coated for clearance, rods fixed, moving the thrust bearing, and a full cleaning. What I want to know is should I put money into this motor again since I have Wiseco pistons, eagle rods, and heads rebuilt or do I go with a JDM motor from an importer and make mine an EJ20? I want to make the decision and drive it not sell the whole thing because that has been on my mind too.

Thank you!

[randomiam]

If you've already got the internals, and kind of made that investment. I would rebuild it. I don't know but I haven't always heard the best things about trying to make the crankshaft work again by way of regrind back to spec but I've only done this once.

I'm in a pretty similar spot-- I'm tearing it down and doing bearings/replacing crankshaft and gonna be kind of a freak about my clearances this next go.

that said, $1200-$1500 for a JDM motor and transmission isn't a bad deal either

[RckyMtnLegacy]

I am just afraid of spinning another bearing in this motor

[BoostedSubie]

What is causing the spun bearings, how many miles did you put on it after the first time you rebuilt it? Just curious as I had planned to build one of my 2.2t with the wisecos, rods, and phase 2 2.5 crank in the near future.

[Legacy777]

If you know or can figure out what caused the spun bearing and correct that issue, rebuilding it shouldn't be an issue, however if you don't know or can't figure out why it has spun a bearing more than once I'd be hesitant too about rebuilding it.

Was it the same bearing that spun and how many miles on the motor when it spun?

[RckyMtnLegacy]

It spun probably around 5k after the rebuild maybe a bit more. I did have a starvation issue when my driveplate tweaked and tore out my rear main seal and emptied my block.

[RckyMtnLegacy]

Going back it looks like first time was #4 second was #1

[Legacy777]

Do you believe that the drive plate and oil starvation was a likely cause of the spun bearing? If you can identify what was the likely cause, I'd be more comfortable rebuilding it...

[RckyMtnLegacy]

I do not have any pin point on the cause really. We think it could have been the starvation and caused the bearing to heat up and then weaken and over time spin. Another wierd thing was the gear on the crank and stupid hard to get off and it looked like the key on the crank had moved about 1/8-1/4 inch on the light weight pully so i need a new pully too. No idea if they could have caused anything. Crank bolt came off too easily also.

Pics are in my journal if someone can make heads or tails of the bearing

[turboleg]

Sorry to hear about the bearing issue. As far as the crank pulley is concerned I can't imagine you are seeing much if any gain by using a light weight. I don't know that I would worry about investing my money in another. But some of them do look pretty nice.