Thread: SR20DE with bolt-ons or SR20VE?

what build would make more sense money vs. final power sr20de I/h/e/jwts3/pulleys or just dropping in a sr20ve stock? I just yanked the motor and trans out of my 92 b13 and im having this discussion with myself right now... kind of leaning toward the ve swap after all parts for the de im basically at the same price as a ve swap. but id like to keep my de for smog reasons.

@420sr20 I've moved your post to a new thread so you have can the in-depth discussion you deserve without muddying up the other thread.


I haven't priced out SR20VEs in a long time so I can't really answer that one. Most people also toss a header on the VE which really wakes it up, and you'll have to figure something out for the ECU which adds to the cost (almost no one uses the stock VE ECU, for good reason).
Some one else with more VE knowledge will come along and help soon I'm sure.

When I swapped in a fresh VE, my smog readings were way lower than with the DE. Just throwing it out there

Go for a sr20det first, if you don't want to spend that much then go for the sr20ve... With just intake, ssac header and really really crapping exhaust (2" flanges + crush bent!) I got 173whp / 138wtq, with a cutout I gained at least another 10-15 whp (raced people with and without it open made a HUGE difference...) Personally I don't think a sr20de is worth keeping N/A... If your DE is in good shape then turbo that lol.

My end vote is for a sr20ve though

What do you want out of the car long term? If you want to stay NA, and will want something faster down the road through the VE in now and upgrade over time. You can easily have a 200 WHP car with just a few mods and a good tune. I would invest in an ECU (Nismotronic) as this will give you the most gains and let you change as you add more mods.

what he said^^^

ve has better head, bigger cams,more fun.

The ve is the way to go but if you want to go crazy on a de I say do it go back to the old school way and kill it with a de

I was trying to figure out a way to say this without having a slew of replies dogging the DE but steve said it best.

Knowing that the ve will pass smog sold me on the ve swap. I do want to stay n/a so its an easy decision. I will keep my de motor (it needs a valve job) for a down the line project but a b13 ser ve swap is just disgusting! One more thing guys, I'm pretty sure the trans is out of a p10 my second gear grinds and I hate the cable set up got any good ideas for a hydro tranny swap? And what's up with Andreas miko? He still around?

You can do a P11 or B15 trans and go hydro. There is lots of info on the hydro swap around the forum.