my 2 cents.. I say the ej20/25

 

Why everybody makes such a big deal of crankwalk, I don't know... if you don't want crankwalk, just don't buy a 2g , if you really don't want it, buy a 91 and avoid both the weird electrical system on the 90 and the uglier 92-94 front end while getting a 6-bolt that's no more likely to crankwalk than pretty much any other motor. Also, from what I've read about them, the Evo's never had the problems with crankwalk that US 7-bolt cars do.

Also, I'm sure that if somebody put a huge turbo that didn't make full boost until 800 rpm before redline on a 4G63 they could get over 600 whp, too, but it seems that dsm owners as a group have more sense than that. Unless the scale was off on that chart, that was a 300 hp graph with a 600 hp peak right before the limiter. Almost no time at peak power and I've heard kill stories that would confirm the dyno queen status.

DSM unreliabilty- take two turbo four cylinder engines- an SR20 in japan and a 4G63 here. Sure, the SR20 is beaten on, the S-car it lives in is drifted, it's modified, etc, but the people working on it have a greater chance of actually having a clue, and when it gets drifted right into a pole and the front half gets shipped over here, the swap into a 240 includes a complete rebuild/replace/upgrade of pretty much everything that could fail.
The DSM is beaten just as hard, modified by idiots slapping an mbc on and cranking it down to 20 psi on stock everything, worked on by local yokels of the type who recommend removing the turbo if it fails "it will run fine without it, you don't really need the turbo", people boosting the car into a parking space and then just shutting it off and baking a nice layer of quickie-lube crap into the turbo because they don't have even a basic understanding of their car (which I'd say is less likely in Japan). You can see how the Nissan swap people- typically getting a lot of the work done for them by professionals- have a bit of an advantage in reliability over the clueless kid (like me a year ago) who picks up a used DSM and expects to drive it daily without something like the total going-over the sr20 swap would get.

 

D15 Biatch!!!!

 

i didnt know the sr20 was an aluminum block, now that i know it is out of the question as the best 4 cylinder ever. when you want to run alot of boost for long periods of time, aluminum sucks. i have seen hondas pull the headbolts out of the block rendering the block useless. and if you want to see which engine is really better, but a 3sgte on an engine stand next to a 4g63 and start dissassembling them both. you will see which one is better. the exhaust manifold bolts on the 4g63 are a joke, as is most everything else on that engine. it was built cheeply, and it shows. also the stock turbos are pure garbage. i have not seen more blown stock turbos from any other turbocharged vehicle, you can blame it on people turning up the boost too high which helps kill them, but i know people that never modded their engines or raised the boost and still had lots of problems. as for the ej series motors, i wont comment as i have no personal experience, but the sr20 in my book is no good for a reliable high output engine. aluminum blocks just wont do for reliability.
william

 

yes, for a drag car where the block is changed regularly it isnt a problem, but for an endurance race, it would really suck to be pulling 20+psi of boost and the head pull the studs just enough to blow the hg. and trust me, the hondas block had all the threads in the block for the head studs stripped when we went to replace the hg. block was junk. pistons were stock cast units and were fine. aluminum blocks are no good if you want any amount of reliability at serious hp levels.
william

 

ok, im gonna explain this for the simple minded folk. the studs will get pulled because of the high cylinder pressures that exsist when you run alot of boost. we didnt pull the studs out, the hg blew because the pressures in the cylinders caused the head to try and pop off the block. but to do that it had to pull the studs with it. make sense now. aluminum is malable. it is used because it is light weight. for an n/a engine it should be fine, but for a motor that is see's lots of boost all the time it is far from desirable. this is all to due with reliability. for full blown drag cars, they throw that to the wind.
william

 

oh, and btw, i HAVE seen a honda motor do just what i stated. boosted a max of 22psi. lasted maybe 2 weeks. then started smoking. upon disassembly the head bolt threads were stripped due to the pressure. head had never been off before so you cant say faulty instalation.
william