Thread: How to spot a fake red top?

keep us posted...

damn thats cheap...

good luck, its one hell of a deal if everything is good

If this is a FWD engine it should have a 78E stamp on the block. Now there were non turbo 78E's but if the oil feed to the turbo looks factory, I'd say you have a turbo motor.

The only other way to really be sure is to look at the bottom end. If you see oil squirters you have a turbo engine.

Ok, here's the update: It wasn't a red top, not a det of any kind, just a de, and a highport at that! The guy was legit, he just wasn't a nissan guy. So he's got this metalic red vc with no cover plate mounting holes in the casting, and a fed-ex shipper box containing the original silver vc. (THE spare cover!) So who ever had this originally, probably caught a fresh red vc on ebay for cheap picked it up and the next thing you know, "hey look, that there's one of those rare red tops I hear'ed about lol". You know, that same white trash lore that makes the rounds just like this one: If you wet a napkin and hold it over the smoke detector in the airplane's bathroom, they won't know you're smoking in there!"
Oh well, maybe this is an omen, so i'm thinking I may do this now instead.
Pick-up A fresh de rebuild "everything kit", then get the new pistons top coated. At that point I'll have fresh bearings, seals, new chain set-up complete with tensioner and sprockets, oil pump. Get a jwt ecu, run this up to 9 or 10 pounds with the t25 rebuilt, on 370's spraying it up high with this CoolingMist Varicool II digital meth injection system I've been using on another car I've got. It's probably even better than oil squirters for racing, but for a dd, the squirters would be a little more long term.
I've been running my other car (mazda engine) just like that successfully with high compression (9.4:1) and the methanol, and It really comes on like an old maid on a Saturday night ;-)

I thought the DET has a mini oil-cooler thing built into the oil filter adapter piece. It is much larger than a DE? I've just noticed that on an old DET I used to have. Could have been aftermarket or something too.

Whats wrong with your current sr20 that would keep you from just adding a turbo set up to that, with your meth injection kit? A de will handle 9-10psi all day on pump gas with a jwt tune, or a nistune. Look around on here there are plenty of people making good hp with stock de's.

That's the rub, that's why I was looking at this red top wanna be. I believe I've spun a bearing in my de and was thinking maybe it's new engine time.
I haven't disassembled it yet, but now I'm hoping when I do, I can maybe save the crank. I did pull the vc and had a look at the cams, and everything looks good under there. So yeah, I agree with your idea plus with coating fresh pistons and a hone job, I think thats what I'll try and do.

Keep it cheap and simple for now you can always go bigger, later.

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$200 is dirt cheap, if it indeed is still healthy you could buy that and boost it.