# Bad Rap



## k28gt (Sep 30, 2004)

Hey everybody, I'm new here but have been reading up on the Spec-V's since they came out. I went and checked them out when my local dealership first got one in. And I've read all the reviews of the car that I could find and I'll kind of perplexed. I just recently bought a 2002 molten silver spec-v and love it. 

Sport Compact Car says the 6200 rpm redline is way too low, but when they reviewed the Scion Tc they didn't complain about its 6200 rpm redline or the SRT-4's either. It seems cars with larger displacement 4 cylinders don't have higher rpm's available. They also said that it's power output wasn't that great but it's always being compared to cars with forced induction (SRT-4's, Mazdaspeed Protege's, Mini Cooper S, etc.) 

When I had my turbo 2nd gen talon I inquired about rebuilding the motor and stroking it out to a 2.4L and the engine guy said it would lower my max rpm from like 7200 to around 6500 because of the length of the stroke.

I've also read a lot about the first two gears being to short, but similar cars have roughly the same gear ratios (although not getting to 60 in 2nd is stupid on the engineers part in my opinion).

I love the car, I think it handles really well and has good punch. I've owned some fast stuff, two 13 second turbo talons, 13 second mustang, and a 68 GTO. So I'm not basing my opinion on the car coming from a Dodge Caravan or something similiar. Does anyone feel the same way?


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## GarrettSER (Apr 6, 2003)

You know, what I've noticed from people who can't stand the Spec V (cough chimmike cough  ) is that they look at it as a difficult engine to turbocharge, and or really fix up, so it annoys the hell out of them. A lot of people here seem to adore engines that have the stock capability of taking turbo, nitrous, etc; i.e things that the qr25 is simply more sensitive too and don't take as well as other engines.

If your not that into crazy tuning and heavy modifying, I think the Spec V is an awesome car.


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

I just hope you got a good 2002 and not one that was a lemon 

good luck to you and enjoy it


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## caveman (Dec 20, 2003)

GarrettSER said:


> You know, what I've noticed from people who can't stand the Spec V (cough chimmike cough  ) is that they look at it as a difficult engine to turbocharge, and or really fix up, so it annoys the hell out of them. A lot of people here seem to adore engines that have the stock capability of taking turbo, nitrous, etc; i.e things that the qr25 is simply more sensitive too and don't take as well as other engines.
> 
> If your not that into crazy tuning and heavy modifying, I think the Spec V is an awesome car.



I don't care one bit about modding a spec V because we got the car for my wife. I never bought it as a project car, and aside from a in box K&N, the car is 100% stock. I am however a little upset as to how wussy the engine seems to be. Most engines are not tunned so close to stock redline, or so damn sesitive to any spec outside of factory stock. To me, the 2.5l engine seems weak. I've never read so many post in my life about how carefully the engine needs to be broken in, or how the engine will blow up if 87 fuel is used, or how weak the valve springs are and if they are reved past stock, the valves will float. If I could do it over again, I would have bought a different car. The car is still fun to drive, but I'm worried about failures after the warranty runs out. I've also never heard so many cases of ECUs and MAFs going out. What is it with this car? I'm acually more of a Ford fan now since I've owned this car. I was a hardcore import fan , but after reading so many problems with the spec V, we will be replacing it with a new Mustang. The Spec V has made me a Nissan hater for life. I still read the board tho and prey for a posting about a tranny recall for my car, or maybe even a AC system recall. Hell, even a front break recall would be nice. Also, I try to help with some questions, but most questions are about tunning, and this is NOT a tunner. car.


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## pherschel (Jun 29, 2004)

I agree this is not a tuner car. When I bought mine I let the manager talk me into an extended warranty. (This was before I started reading the boards.) I'm glad I got it now. But, you have to remember, how many of the posters posting problems with their cars have _not_ modded them? 

Boards tend to attract people who are having problems along with fans of a car. So I take what what I see as problems on boards with a grain of salt.

I agree with the comment about the reviewers. Right on!


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## muphasta (Aug 12, 2002)

Caveman, Have you had any of those problems? If you don't plan on modding the car, why worry about problems that arise from making mods to the car? The MAF goes out becuase people put in a CAI, not because they didn't mod it and it just went bad.

I have a CAI, catback, and what is the worst thing possible in Chimmike's eyes, an 02.

I have had no problems w/my car. I believe this is the case because I did break it in propberly, and had professionals do the installs. That is not to say that people that do their own mods don't know what they are doing, I am just saying I had someone who knew what he was doing put in the CAI, and Magnaflow gave me the catback, and installed it themselves. I would have been uncomfortable doing the installs myself.

All I am saying is don't hate the car because of things you've read. If you have had problems, that is another story.


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## Bob Marley (Sep 13, 2004)

with changin the internals and put on a turbo and all the other good stuff,cant u atleast get the spec down to the 13's?


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

absolutely. but that's a lot of money to spend...when there are other cars that pull times like that stock for a few grand more brand new than the spec V


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## Zac (Mar 10, 2004)

Bob Marley said:


> with changin the internals and put on a turbo and all the other good stuff,cant u atleast get the spec down to the 13's?


You could...but then you would have a "supertuner"....no warranty and no guarenteed reliability. Supertuners are fun cars but they do break quite a lot more than stock cars.


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## caveman (Dec 20, 2003)

Aside from the MSP, most turbo cars are built pretty stong. They can come from the factory with the correct compression and internals to take some pretty good abuse. DSMs, SRT-4, WRX, are cars that can see 13s 1/4 miles with bolt ons alone. The engine doesn't need to be touched. 

If anyone wants to build a turbo car, I would not buy a Spec V. It's just not worth it. Even if you build up the engine, what can be done about the tranny? I asked this question months ago and I never saw a answer. Even if the engine was built up to 300HP or more, the power still needs to go to the ground. A few race shops might have built up a Spec V, but anyone on a budget shouldn't try.

As far as modded/tunner cars breaking more often, well that depends on what you do with it. Any car raced or driven hard will fail more then a car that is only played with from time to time.


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## Zac (Mar 10, 2004)

caveman said:


> Aside from the MSP, most turbo cars are built pretty stong. They can come from the factory with the correct compression and internals to take some pretty good abuse. DSMs, SRT-4, WRX, are cars that can see 13s 1/4 miles with bolt ons alone. The engine doesn't need to be touched.
> 
> If anyone wants to build a turbo car, I would not buy a Spec V. It's just not worth it. Even if you build up the engine, what can be done about the tranny? I asked this question months ago and I never saw a answer. Even if the engine was built up to 300HP or more, the power still needs to go to the ground. A few race shops might have built up a Spec V, but anyone on a budget shouldn't try.
> 
> As far as modded/tunner cars breaking more often, well that depends on what you do with it. Any car raced or driven hard will fail more then a car that is only played with from time to time.


A turbo B15 SE-R Auto is the key to turbocharging the QR...not that it is still an easy job but a built auto could easily handle 265+ whp and ya never gotta worry about a mis shift. As far as breaking, I guess I was referring mainly to the DSM world. Great cars, incredibly powerful, always bold in styling but they seem to break rather often.


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

the DSMs have enough of a knowledge base that all problems are well known and there are tons of easy fixes available.

a car that has surprised me a bit recently is the Saturn Ion Redline (and the soon to be released Chevy Cobalt SS supercharged) 

the dyno on that car (I've seen a couple of stock dynos for that ecotec supercharged engine) is right around 195whp and about the same or 200ft-lbs in tq!!! GM really underrated that engine as well.


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## Zac (Mar 10, 2004)

chimmike said:


> the DSMs have enough of a knowledge base that all problems are well known and there are tons of easy fixes available.
> 
> a car that has surprised me a bit recently is the Saturn Ion Redline (and the soon to be released Chevy Cobalt SS supercharged)
> 
> the dyno on that car (I've seen a couple of stock dynos for that ecotec supercharged engine) is right around 195whp and about the same or 200ft-lbs in tq!!! GM really underrated that engine as well.


Yea, easy fixes but not always cheap . And damn, that ecotec is after the SRT!


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## SR20dee (May 1, 2002)

HI! and welcome back to the SRT forum!


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