Have you seen the prices of B-series engines, lately? Particularly B18Cs??? Kept me from building another honda. Yeah, The K series should be even more valuable at some point.

 

yeah, B series are rare these days, K's are a dime a dozen... Also B series sound a bit better

 

​​​​​ I'd always put a B into a car that originally had it as I'd always put a rotary in an FD. Some cars I really like because of their engines. Classic. Even if not the "best".

 

K series have already increased in price a good bit. Nobody cares about the i-vtec model. People want dual vtec which only came on a few engines. K24A2 could be bought for $6-800 with under 100k 2-3 years ago, now they're $1200+ for over 100k. K20Z3 is in a similar boat. But with K series having aftermarket cylinder heads, blocks, basically every component that goes onto them, I don't think their prices will swell like other older import engines have.

 

Same thing happened with Ecotecs. I used to buy 2.4L LE5 for like $400-600 with under 50k miles. Now if you can even find one, at whatever mileage, is over $2k. Its almost the same price to buy a reman from a dealer at this point.

 

You live in the wrong state. LE5s are $150-250 from u pull yards around here lol

 

Trust me, I hear that all the time from my eastern customers. I tell them to load a couple up on a pallet, send them my way and I will pay double what they paid. I cant even get LSJ, LNF or L61 anymore. LEAs are next to go. This is why we have been converting everyone over to the LCV. Can still get those cheapish since they are so new.

 

yeah but thats covid inflation, it hit everything (except 2.5 Duratec/MZRs surprisingly). in relation to the good B series, the good K's are still relatively cheap. its mostly supply and demand, B's are rare now, B's in decent condition a lot more so. But even cores at 4pistonracing are $300 more for a B than a K

 

If I had more free time and it wasn't 10F outside I'd definitely take you up on that. L61 are even more common than LE5s lol. LSJ and LNF are rare for sure but anything not boosted from the factory is hard to not find one in yards here. My old college roommate goes through them like underwear haha.


I don't really consider the good Ks too cheap anymore when you compare them to Ecotecs and Duratecs. Sure they're cheap when compared to evo 4Gs or SR20DET or any BMW S engine but unless there's another nationwide cash for clunkers craze, I don't think K series are really going to get super pricey. But maybe I'm way off base on that.

 

Did he finally get his Cobalt back up and running? Or keeps taking out engines in the Sky?

 

Do you know him? I suppose it's been a bit since he's needed a new engine (when we were in school he was constantly putting a new one in the Cobalt), though he did recently buy an LDK for an HHR SS he bought. Last I saw he hasn't touched the Cobalt in a couple years, it needs a whole new chassis harness if I remember correctly and I think he's ditching the twin charged setup to go back to a single turbo. He got the Sky dyno'd last year and it did decent but he determined the custom inlet he fab'd onto the blower case was a bit too restrictive so he's redoing that too and the car needs a clutch amongst other things...

 

I dont really know him but I know him from the Cobalt forum (i have 2 ss cobalts, one s/c one t/c). He used to be active on it and I know he has a X which I think he wrapped yellow? The joke with him was that his Cobalt was always on jack stands haha. Last I heard he threw the blower on the sky but haven't heard anything past that point. Good to know he is still plucking away at ecotec projects!

 

I'm not really sure on Ecotecs, I don't follow their pricing, but its a decent engine with boost. But Duratecs (2.5) are cheap for a reason... its a pretty sh*t engine. its basically only good cause its so cheap you can treat it as a wear item if you can do the swap yourself

edit: my dime a dozen comment was only aimed at how the K compares to the B as far as pricing and availability.

 

Haha small world eh? Yea him and I would always give each other **** about forum stuff when we were in school. He bought his X a few years ago at a pretty low mileage. He just did the master cylinder upgrade on it last week. He always complained about how it shifted like crap when it was cold. I know he's also been trying to find a manual AWD Saab 9-3 since it's the only manual AWD Ecotec car that was made.


Oh yea, Duratecs are not great by any means but Ford made them by the millions haha. My biggest gripe with them is their use of non keyed cranks and cams. Timing them isn't bad if you know what you're doing and have the right special tools but tons of people don't. Ecotecs aren't bad but they need a ton of work to make high power and on the older gen 2 blocks they split cylinder walls. Gen 3 stuff is much stronger and lots of them have closed decks vs the gen 2 open deck. They're also foam cast blocks which usually isn't as strong as sand cast so that's a contributor to some of the problems they have holding power. But if there's a will (and you're rich enough) there's a way, I know there's some pro mod drag car from South America that uses an Ecotec and runs high 5s in the quarter mile, I believe it still holds the record for quickest 4 cylinder on the planet.

 

I stated this already but I keep getting reminded. The Supra forums and facebook groups are filled with people that think they are right but they are so wrong/ignorant. Total waste of time. I miss the more mature forums like how this one used to be.

I think I have seen about 10 people post photos of their turbo manifolds / turbo hotside with rust on it and they are freaking out and think the car is falling apart. I mean, is this the first car they have ever owned? Am I just a old grumpy bastard now?



On a brighter note, I just put a deposit on some MCS 2WNR coilovers for the Supra. Hoping it's a nice upgrade from Ohlins! For what they cost, they better be...