FSZE

[m.c.K-dogg]

I know this is a subject that has been covered a lot but I have been thinking about swapping my broken down, beat up engine with 102K on it with a jspec engine. But two problems come up. One being that I have never thought that the stock ecu would run this engine properly and second being the VRIS system. Then as I was looking at the picture of one I notice the ignition system is different.

This is how I think how the swap could work. In theory the heads are the same so you could take the manifold off of a aspec and put it on the jspec. Next the ignition system could be swapped out because the heads are the same which means that you could add your dist. and there should be a hole in the head for this. As for the ECU, I'm sure it would take some fine tuning but how do they do it when any car is changes its compression ratio because in a since that is all you would be doing. Now you ask why would you go through this much trouble? Why not just get a new set of pistons and cam and get the same thing? Well, again I would be doing the same thing but hopefully going from an engine that has 102K and more possibility of failing again to an engine with lower mileage and hopefully some kind of warranty..

What do you think?

[L|qUiD]

First of all the SE's including the FS-ZE does NOT have VRIS Plates. That is for the V6. Second you have to have the J-Spec ECU for the FS-ZE. That motor is designed for 94+ Octane and it just plain needs the J-Spec ECU to work properly.

[Steve Lloyd]

http://www.corksport.com/ford/pictures/prb6503.jpg


If that's not a VRIS system, then what the @%*@*%#@&%& is it? That's why no one has gotten the FSZE manifold to work properly.

Matt, just buy the pistons from Corksport and have your engine rebuilt. Most rebuilds will come with a warranty.

Steve

[marcaj]

You would HAVE TO have the j-spec ECU, especially with the distributor-less ignition system.

I am having problems with just my j-cam and stock ECU. So the FS-ZE probably wouldn't run at all without the appropriate ECU.

[m.c.K-dogg]

Okay,

The FSZE does have the VRIS system! And like I said the distributor-less ignition system can be replaced be the system that is in the aspec engine. As far as the ECU goes, from what I have been told the ECU has different connectors on it so you would need to replace the wiring harreness. So a reprogramming would be needed. Don't they offer a reprogram for the 2.5?

[joshrea]

This is what I think you should do.

Buy the motor.

Take the head off and sell it.
Take the manifold off and sell it.

With that money buy a ported and polished head and manifold.

Put those items back on the ZE small block assembly and voila. You have a motor that is probably puttin around 130 to the ground or 155-160 to FW. But if you ever wanna use nitrous or FI you will have the p&p head to give the motor a better flow so you will pick up more hp.

Honestly though. YOur at a point where you need to figure out what you want. Do you wanna make big power? Or do you wanna get fast fast can be, all motor? If you wanna make big power just get you motor rebuilt with lower compression pistons so you gan go FI hardcore!!

[joshrea]

Oh yeah
www.usedengines.com

[m.c.K-dogg]

I'm thinking at his point I just want to go "all motor". Why do you think I would need to replace the head other than to have one that is pnp'ed? If I buy a ZE that will give me three heads,. Anyone want to buy one??

[marcaj]

Well, with what has been discussed, it'd be cheaper to just buy the pistons, and port and polish what ya got!

[nathan]

Okay, just so everyone knows it is impossible to actually get an FSZE engine. I inquired at 36 different places across the US, Japan Direct DOES NOT have the engine, and other places say that they do, but actually do not CSI for one. Midwest Auto will quote a price for one, but when I requested pictures they sent pictures of the FS01 engine. I thought that I had found one in CA from a locator, I even sent them money and everything to get the engine. It was supposed to be coming and I sold my intake cam to a person on the board, and then when it arrived it was the same engine that I had taken out of the car. The conclusion that I have come to is that it is too hard to actually get the engine, since I spent about 1 solid month trying to get it, and then found out that most of these engine places do not actually know what they have, or they try to sell you the a-spec engine at a high price and figure that you won't know the difference.

Also, there is no hole for the dist. b/c it is much the same as the coil pack on my RX7, the spark is generated in the box and is sent to the plug wires. It mounts on the outside of the block, thus no hole.

[Jose18]

Okay you can replace the coil pack with the distributor but then your messing with the whole engine dynamics again cause the computer on the ZE is what controls the spark advance and retard.

[marcaj]

they try to sell you the a-spec engine at a high price and figure that you won't know the difference

What do they think we are? Complete idiots?! [img]/forums/images/smiles/icon_mad.gif[/img]

[nathan]

Actually, most of the importers do not know what they have. I had to send them picts from Corksports website before half of them would belive me that there are two engines. Then amazingly two places had the engine, but the price was suddenly higher than Corksport, go figure!! Yes, the coil pack could be replaced by the distributor, but that would require switching the heads, not a real good option, in my opinion. I guess bottom line, unless you know someone in Japan that can get you the engine with the ECU, since Corksport cannot seem to get it, just build up your engine.