Pamex wrote:Mmm, I disagree Morlock. Sure, a lot of money may have been spent, but sometimes it's not about that. Don't ever ask me how much I'm spending on nuts and bolts alone for my resto of mine. :p
Ok, just realised the following sounds smart arse-ish, but it's not meant to be. Just throwing things out for you to factor in to your costings.
The cheap option is definitely to whack in a second hand motor. However, gone are the days of ridiculously cheap engines for these. How good are you on the tools? Are you going to be able to do pretty much all the labour yourself? Or are you going to have to pay quite a bit of labour? It's all stuff to factor in.
I'm pretty lucky having a well sorted home workshop, heaps of spares and literally tonnes of racking of hose clamps, nuts, bolts, assorted fasteners (I'm a freak and HKS_Kansei is patient), spare hosing etc. Are you going to have to buy everything from scratch though? Sounds crazy, but it all needs to be factored in. It's the little stuff that eats your money.
I recently priced a second hand NA6 engine and some bits to keep it reliable (belts, timing kit, fluids, etc.) and that came to around $1700. For parts alone. I haven't priced a BP or the like, but I doubt you'll be getting out of it for under 2k for just parts, if you're doing it properly.
Now, to rebuilds: Will you be assembling it yourself? Boring, honing, price of parts etc. is pretty much the same fee no matter how big you go. But, well, you can't go crazy with these motors and expect reliability. I have all parts ready to do the bottom end on a motor in my garage currently to stock specifications including machining. All up, TRADE price, was just under $2k. There's still more to buy. I still have to do the head, that's not included. Just under 2k for a stock old-school bottom end (simple as can be). Depending which way you want to go, are you going to have to factor in an ECU etc.? Do you have all the required tools to assemble it? Do you have the time and patience? Is someone going to be happy for you to plonk stuff in their workshop whilst you do it? Most importantly... are you going to be able to keep everything clean (crucial) and together in someone else's workshop whilst you're not there?
I'm not trying to be a smart arse, just throwing things out there for you to factor in.
If you're doing an engine build yourself, I reckon factor around 2.5 - 3k minimum unless you can get trade pricing. There'll be tools you need to buy, sealants, replacement items, fluids, etc.
What would I do? If I was chasing more power, I'd be pulling the engine out and rebuilding it to whatever specs you want. Assuming it doesn't have a cracked head or block. First though, I'd be chasing why it shat itself.
I have access to a mechanic with 30years experience, all his tools, and I get trade price. What I can't do he jumps in and helps, and I pay a token fee and help out where I can doing hack work and running errands. (My uncle). His son (my cousin, obviously) and myself are very close, so I'm staying at his house anyway every now and then.
This means I'll be able to do everything myself. I think even he outsources a few tasks like machining the face of the head, for example.
I'm now starting to think a VVT stockie with 4-1's and cams + ECU, (MAYBE injectors and ITB's) will do the trick, and I'll keep the blown up engine and build it up over the next year or so, then swap it out when I'm ready.
I know you think you're being a smartarse, but you've actually all been extremely helpful, and I'm very grateful.
