JDM engine, rip off...

It's funny, if you google "tiger JDM engines", half the results on the first page are from Tiger (and obvious connected websites) and the others are very unhappy customers.

This thread shows up on the second page.

Last year i did a SR20DET swap into my s13 i spent a lot of time researching what was the best way to get my motor. I found a lot of threads like this one, warning me of just about every company I looked into. Espeshaly the out of country ones! I found out the best thing to do is to use a local shop to supply your engine and if you can get a front clip its even better, as you can start the engine and test it before you take dilivery. Some times this is not good economics, like in fastclowns case. He just needed the engine. If you use a local supplier when you get your engine and somthing is not right you can contact the supplier and they should help you out. I had to get several replacment parts for my engine as they had been damaged by the shipper but it was not a problem. I gave them the busted parts and they gave me good parts with no hassle. It cost about $800 more than the cheepest motor swap from an internet dealer. I would rather spend $2300 on a qualety product then role the dice with $1500. I also had a JDM engine in a MK1 mr2 i used to have 5 seasons of auto-x and 7 years of daily driving and it is still going strong. not bad for $400.

fastclown wrote: Hmmm, I wonder if JDM Tiger Japanese has a financial friend... I did file the claim, waste of time, a lot of time.... Their site also says that EVERY engine has been compression checked, impossible on this one since every spark plug had a 1/4"+ of compacted dirt around every spark plug. Those plugs haven't been pulled in a lot of miles. All I ask is an honest decription, and if it's wrong on their end that I should get a ful refund. I understand they must get some bad engines, and if they would have replaced at no cost to me and the new one fell within the descripion everybody would be happy. I did mention on the phone during the original order that these engines are probably 20 years old, "not a problem, these engines are all checked out. The max would be 60,000 miles but that is rare." The $250 JDM Tiger Japanese auto parts saved on me will hopefully cost them a lot more down the JDM Tiger Japanese lieing road. We'll see if the TigerJapanese employee responds with more bs. If he doesn't like what I'm showing, then he should file a claim with me and I'll show him first hand what the JDM TigerJapanese experience is all about.

Fastclown, I wish I had not been so hasty in purchasing my JDM engine. I surely would have came across this thread and it would of saved me some aggrevation! You are absolutely doing the right thing by expressing your displeasure with Tiger. Like you, I'm over the money they screwed me out of, I'm all about hurting their future earnings.

I purchased a Mitsu 4G63T from Tiger Jap Auto LTD and prior to making the purchase over the phone I expressed my concern with the crankwalk issues that these engines are renouned for. The salesman assured me he would to the best he could to find me an engine out of an automatic since it would be less susceptible to thrust bearing wear. I received the engine and it was immediately evident that Tiger does not do what they say or advertise. They claim to look the engine over, test compression etc., any one with any mechanical inclination would realize that this engine is NO GOOD. The engine they shipped to me had suffered from crankwalk, the crank tigger plate had made contact with the crank sensor. It would only be a matter of miles before it implodes.

I was somewhat upset because I had expressed my concern with crankwalk and it was obvious that they had not checked for it. I call them up for a warranty claim except that their phone reps do not take warranty, exchange, or return claims over the phone. Instead, you have to fill some retarded online form. Needless to say, ITS TOTALLY USELESS. They take forever to respond if at all, they give you the run around, I almost feel like it's fraudulent in nature. This is not how a customer should be treated.

I didn't expect to receive a perfect engine by any means, I only expected what they advertised, a running JDM engine with low miles. The only recourse I have is to travel over there and visit them in person. The inconvenience and travel expense alone would outweight the money I'm out of. I ended up using their POS engine and my old worn engine to come up with 1 running engine.

The moral of the story is; DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM TIGER!!!

When I see threads in forums knocking vendors I almost always side with the vendor. A lot of people really expect too much in my opinion.

However, this is pretty remarkable. That engine... wow. Thanks for the heads up. This is very good to know.

Right now, you're on the first page of results for "tiger jdm" on Google. Anything after the second result is a similar experience.

Wonkothesane wrote: The problem is, to get up the google rankings, you really need to link to the page, with some "buzz" words around it. For example: Here's a couple of JDM engine sites I found that a run by frauds.. They'll rate an engine highly, A+ or Best Rating, then it will be crap! You can buy a POS engine from them by going to Tiger Japanese Auto Parts, or you can hit yourself in the head with a rusty hammer, which will ultimately be less painful and more rewarding. The other place to order rusty non-working JDM engines from is JDM Tiger Japanese Auto Parts. It's the same company, so the rusty hammer method would apply just as well here.

Sorry to hear about a GRM'er buying from them. I mean I've never attempted any motor swaps but just being interested in them and reading about it online I've heard enough horror stories about JDM Tiger. "JDM Tiger" for engine swaps is like "Nigerian Banker" for business.

Bump cause I hate scammers.

carzan wrote:

16vCorey wrote:

gearhead313 wrote: BECAUSE ITS A USED JUNKYARD MOTOR THAT SHOULD NOT BE ASSUMED TO BOLT RIGHT IN AND RUN.

BS. I work for a junkyard, and we only sell engines that will bolt right in and run. If they don't run and pass inspection, they go straight into the core bin. I would expect the same from any junkyard engine from a reputable company.

+1 If the condition is rated by the seller as "best", a buyer expects that engine to be ready to go. Rating an engine indicates that the seller has checked it out and has rated it according to what they found. No experienced parts seller would have looked that engine over and still honestly rated it as "best". Any honest seller that sold an engine that was rated by them as "best" and it turned out to be a turd wouldn't be giving anyone a hard time about returning it, either.

+2 I've seen best and that is nothing close. Even Junkyards that get engines like this can find cleaner ones that are drop in ready.

As for the engines coming out of japan: I've seen a lot that are abused, but those one will usually be in much better shape that that. My money is that they also import Japanese engines out of Europe. I've seen plenty of SR20DET's come from out of there in this type of condition.

insert 3 piks happy clown sad clown angry revenge clown

fastclown wrote: Their site also says that EVERY engine has been compression checked, impossible on this one since every spark plug had a 1/4"+ of compacted dirt around every spark plug. Those plugs haven't been pulled in a lot of miles.

They checked that dirt, and like you found it was indeed compressed.

fastclown wrote: </cite The $250 JDM Tiger Japanese auto parts saved on me will hopefully cost them a lot more down the JDM Tiger Japanese lieing road. We'll see if the TigerJapanese employee responds with more bs. If he doesn't like what I'm showing, then he should file a claim with me and I'll show him first hand what the JDM TigerJapanese experience is all about.

From the time I have spent online one thing I have learned is that noone would join a message board just to defend a shady company. I'm sure that Mr Gearhead's experiance was fantasic and the JDM TIGER Japanese auto parts people treated him swell. Why else would he risk his reputaion and that of the long line of gearheads before him, probably about 312 of them. I for one am swayed that this authoritative sounding person I have never heard of is clearly more knowledgeable about your dealings with JDM Tiger Japanese auto parts than you. Were I in the market for something to keep my boat from drifting out to sea I would follow his advice and make my first call JDM tiger auto parts. I would also call the good folks at JDM Tiger Auto Parts if i needed to keep papers from blowing off my desk, or a door to be kept open. As far as used running engines go though, I will probably avoid JDM Tiger Japanese auto parts like a Nigerian prince or incumbant congressmen.

The takeaways so far:

In a battle of Fastclown vs. a--clowns, only a couple of people will side with the latter.

Tiger Japanese Auto are a bunch of scammers.

Tiger Japanese Auto claims border on fraud.

Tiger Japanese Auto engines suck.

Tiger Japanese Auto engines look like the victim of some sort of disgusting Japanese tentacle-anime attack.

lol, thsi thread is still going! I'd like to add that I always recommend against pallet engines. I don't care where it comes from if it doesn't have a gauge cluster attached its miles unknown! All the importers like to regurgitate the garbage about emissions and taxes and all the "low miles engines" but the bottom line is that it is a miles unknown engine and should be treated as such. Unless you have a hole in your block it's generally cheaper to rebuild the one you have.

We just got a Sentra in that a local tuner shop swapped a "30k mile" VQ35 into. Customer complains of top end knock, oil consumption, and lots of smoke.

Best cylinder has 10% leakdown at 170psi compression. Worst few have 15% + leakdown and 150psi. Spec for this motor is 185psi, 148 is completely worn out. All air leaking past the rings.

I won't name drop here, but all the bodywork is attached with zip ties, so people local to Dayton ought to know who it is.

I THINK LESLEY SHOULD HAVE READ THIS POST FIRST.

You're absolutely right.

Lesley said: Took my car out for a drive last night on the lovely country roads behind Mosport. Just a leisurely drive since there are a lot of hairpins and the pavement's pretty irregular in places. Since I've been away so much, I haven't really had much chance to drive it, and I've put only about 400 kilometers on the KLZE. Doing about 60 ks on a really narrow road, I'm suddenly aware of a vibration. Which gives way to a full-out knock. Yup. Spun bearing. Had to get it towed home. I'm beyond pissed. The warranty was only good for three months past point of purchase, and the engine sat on a pallet at the shop for that long while I searched for the other parts needed. They won't replace the engine... but offered me $50 off a new one. ... >That motor wasn't from that place in Toronto that rips everyone off, was it? Tiger Japanese Imports? Yes Dr. Hess, it was indeed. I should have asked for lube.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/berkley-of-the-day/34996/page1/

RIP Watanabe. Bought six motors from them and they all ran great. Bought one to do a swap for a customer who changed her mind and I was stuck with it. Ten years later, I sold the motor on eBay and it STILL ran great.

JDM engines come from cars that rot away in the salt air before they wear out.

Talked to the previously mentioned guys in Rancho Cucumonga who didn't have the Nissan GA 16i I was looking for. They directed me to a place in Chico, CA who had an NOS factory short block still in the box for 200 bucks. So there are reputable sellers of JDM motors and I guess they all know each other so we need to get in the loop. Everyone I ever talked to when buying JDMs understood I was going to install them as is. I always replaced timing belts, water pumps, seals, pan and cam gaskets before installing.

Sorry about your troubles, Mike. You could get the FL Attorney General involved. After all, this is an international fraud case.....

Yeah, Jerry. I miss Watanabe too. I drove my 20V Rolla DD in today. Watanabe motor ~70K miles ago. It had a brand new Toyota timing belt, Toyota oil filter and Toyota Red coolant in it when I got it for $350, $500 with the 5 speed attached. Sure miss them.

Nagasaki Motors in western canada seems to have a good rep from what i've heard as well.

Eric JDM in Chicago, too.

There was another place in Atlanta that was expensive, but always had so-clean-you-could-eat-off-it motors...

Where do you guys suggest these days? I'll be on the lookout for a motor this fall.

Don't mess with the clown.

I got my 13B from this place. The guy was pretty helpful and it had a warranty as well as a couple of goodies on the motor...

http://got-jdm.com/

Nis14 wrote: I got my 13B from this place. The guy was pretty helpful and it had a warranty as well as a couple of goodies on the motor... http://got-jdm.com/

They seem less "fishy" than most. Got some stuff labeled pretty blatantly wrong, though. But then again, can't expect them to know everything fanbois do about every motor.

Prices are decent, too, especially once you factor in free shipping!

[edit]

ooooooooooo NEAT!

http://got-jdm.com/9096-jdm-kfze-20l-v6-complete-engine-lonblock-only-p-65.html

Yeah the site sucks. You just have to get on the horn with them to make sure they know exactly what you want.

I had to get to guy to count the number of fins on the fan to confirm the difference between an S5 and S4 motor.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Where do you guys suggest these days? I'll be on the lookout for a motor this fall.

Same here. I want to get my Protege back on the road and a BPT would be a lot less work.

jdmmike wrote: Hi Mike I am here to see what you can do.

And you are???