[SexOnWax]

Zerolift was the first company in my area that responded to my request for a quote on a complete SR20 motor and transmission set installed in my S14 along with some minor bolt-ons and a tune. Robert was very prompt in responding to me, knowledgable regarding any technical questions I had, and even took the time to call me personally to discuss the project. After putting together a list of parts I wanted installed, negotiating with pricing and scheduling a day to drop my car off, I agreed to have Robert and his team proceed with the swap. Money was put down for the cost of parts and I was told that my car would be ready in two weeks. I took the four hour road trip and dropped my car off on April 29th. The Zerolift headquarters was an impressive outfit with a warehouse area full of countless JDM engines and a spacious garage with at least three other 240s being worked on as well as Z32 awaiting an RB26 swap. Back then, I didn't think it was odd that there so many cars being worked on at the same time. More importantly, how long have they all been sitting there?

I woke up early morning October 8th to pick up my car. Yes, six whole months went by. Summer came and went and the $1200 upfront entry fee for my autocross club was wasted and nonrefundable because I had no car to compete with. I'm told that delays were caused by many factors like their local machine shop taking too long in reworking the head, shipping of parts, engine reassembly, key staff members breaking their hand, and dynos breaking on them while tuning. No project ever goes according to plan, which I was expecting especially with a project of this size but unfortunately, my car was one of the rare cases where things didn't seem to go right. There was also an incredible lack of communication on their part. I was more than patient with them during the six months but in return, their communication was few and far between. I never could get a straight answer on when I could pick my car up and was left guessing with each passing weekend.

As tempting as it was to post a rant here on Zilvia (and I did threaten to at one point), I thought it was only fair to wait and see the finish product before making any remarks about the company. Fortunately, the end result was well worth it. The motor is running strong so far with a very neat engine bay and interior. The extra work they put into the head and internals would've easily ran another $2000 in parts and labor but they did it at no additional cost to make up for the long delay. The turbo they recommended (Tomei ARMS M7960) has also been working very well so far. Despite the set backs, I might still consider doing business with them again. The quality of the work speaks for itself but unfortunately, the long delay and poor communication prevents me from rating this experience much higher than I could. I sincerely hope that no one else has to go through this kind of experience with their project but hopefully they will learn from their mistakes.